Genre : Drama
Year : 2007
Running time : 2 hours
Director : Sanjay Gupta, Meghna Gulzar, Jasmeet Dhodi, Hansal Mehta, Apoorva Lakhia, Rohit Roy
Cast : Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Amrita Singh, Manoj Bajpai, Diya Mirza, Minissha Lamba, Nana Patekar, Neha Dhupia, Mahesh Manjrekar, Arbaaz Khan, Mandira Bedi, Aftab Shivdasani, Dino Morea, Sanjay Dutt, Suniel Shetty, Tareena Patel, Jimmy Shergill, Masumeh Makhija, Neha Uberoi, Parmeet Sethi
DUS KAHANIYAN : INEPT !
You can’t get more upfront than this. “Dus Kahaniyan” really is just 10 stories stitched up together. No reading deeper meanings into it. Infact no reading any meaning into it. Ten stories, without a theme to tag them together. Pretty patchy, if you ask me. Why wouldn’t I just watch 10 disjointed TV soaps instead ?
The 10 stories showcased, range from the romantic, to the clichéd, to the bizarre and the paranormal. They were each of about 10-12 minutes, were given separate names, and directed by a handful of directors, Sanjay Gupta doing the meat of the work. Since I’m an optimist, let’s talk about the good ones first – there were three :
– “Matrimony” directed by Sanjay Gupta, starred Mandira Bedi and Arbaaz Khan as a married couple, and was about faith and fidelity in marriage. Nicely done, this came complete with the Gotcha! ending.
– “Zahir”, also directed by Gupta, starred Manoj Bajpai and Dia Mirza, and was about a writer and the girl he falls for. Another surprise ending, although not as believable as “Matrimony”.
– Thirdly there was “Poornamashi”, directed by Meghna Gulzar. It starred Amrita Singh and Minisha Lamba as the mother-daughter pair on the horns of a dilemma. This one was the best of the lot, and displayed, what I thought was genuine emotion mixed in with life’s reality.
I’m sitting on the fence on the next one – it starred Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah, and even they couldn’t save it. “Rice plate” was about a bigoted Tamilian aunty, who sheds her religious prejudices. This one was strictly OK, and just because of the excellent acting.
Now the remaining six didn’t work for me, and they are :
– Hansal Mehta directed “High on the Highway” starring Jimmy Shergill and Masumeh Makhija. Two stoned out lovers on the highway, doing I’m not sure what. Bizarre.
– “Lovedale” – Jasmeet Dhosi’s story of love by super-natural intervention. Silly, silly, silly !
– “Sex on the beach” – Have you met death in a swimsuit, yet ? If not, here’s your chance. A little black humor, lot’s of skin do not a very engrossing story make. This one’s by Apoorva Lakhia.
– “Strangers in the night” stars Neha Dhupia and Mahesh Manjrekar. This awkwardly contrived story, comes off looking cheap. Or was that just Manjrekar on screen ?
– “Rise and Fall” is Gupta’s tribute to the “Gangsta” genre, with the desi mafia represented by Sanjay Dutt and Suniel Shetty. The basic story was about power-play between two “bhais”, but the rest of it was obscured by dramatization, music and a whole lot of gunfire. This one frankly, made little sense to me.
– Gubbare, also by Sanjay Gupta, is a lesson on being thankful for what you have. It tries a little too hard, and comes off preachy.
We’ve had desi multiple-story based films before, remember “Darna mana hai?” . So I do believe that the concept can work, although it must have a common thread binding it. If not, each story had better be strong. Out of all the 10, the only one that stood strong, the only one that I cared about a smidgen, was “Poornamashi”. I could have done with more of Meghna Gulzar’s work and less of Gupta’s, since his was erratic at best.
I can’t fault the actors, although some of them were terrible too. I mean, how genius-y do you have to be to see “Lovedale” and not be knocked senseless by it’s gobsmacking stupidity ? I approach Sanjay Gupta’s (and White Feather Films) with some trepidation, because he (and they) think they are the bacchas of Francis Ford Coppola, and really, it’s not happening.
The title number comes with the end credits. Apparently the music of this film comes in 2 flavors, so they have like 2 versions of the same songs. Me thinks if they’d paid as much attention to the film, as they did to the music, this movie would have had some potential. As it is, it isn’t worth your time.
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