Dus Kahaniyaan

Have ever seen before 10 stories of varieties merged together in a master movie ? Dus Kahaniyaan is the perfect example of it. Some stories are absoloutely brilliant in content and fantastically treated. The ones that stole the show are as follows :--

LOVEDALE --- This is one story which is rich in true romance and has a happy ending. Aftab Shivdasani is always a delight to watch. He has never forgotten to display his natural innocence, sincerity and dedication in his genuine skills of acting and this one is no exception. He has done all types of role with utmost elegance, decency and elan and bears the potential to be a legendary actor. Neha Oberoi is nice and her chemisty with Aftab is excellent. Director Jasmeet Dhodi has done a wonderful job.

GUBBARE --- Nana Patekar rongte khade kar diya hamara by his sheer spellbounding performance. Superb direction by Sanjay Gupta.

RICE PLATE --- A  Hindu woman and a Muslim man's fight over a rice plate. Its about how you forget your principles of life for sheer hunger. Both Shabana and Naseerudin are outstanding. Masterly direction by Rohit Roy.

ZAHIR --- Mindblowing performance by Manoj Bajpai and Dia Mirza. Directed by Sanjay Gupta.

 MATRIMONY --- Directed by Sanjay Gupta, this story revolves around a married couple who cheat each other's understandings for extra-marital affair. Very well conceived and directed.

The worst stories were HIGH ON THE HIGHWAY  &  SEX ON THE BEACH.

                            All-in-all  PAISA VASOOL .

Sometimes, a short story of 10 minutes or a music video of 4 minutes has a better story to tell than most 2.30 hour movies.

Dus Kahaniyaan is a very novel attempt by producer-director Sanjay Gupta, ten stories, six directors and an ensemble of actors. The idea is great and it turns out be an enjoyable experience as well. Even though all ten stories are not outstanding, all of them are absorbing, what with their taut narrative, brilliant acting and the mandatory twist in the tale.

The directors whose stories truly stand out are definitely Gupta himself, Meghna Gulzar and debutant director, Rohit Roy.

Lovedale, Sex On The Beach, High On The Highway are perhaps the weakest stories of the lot. Matrimony, which stars Mandira Bedi, Arbaaz Khan and Sudhanshu Pandey, is a witty, urbane take on matrimony directed by Gupta. Even Strangers in the Night, is an interesting story. The irony behind Rise & Fall, which sees the appearance of Sanjay Dutt and Suniel Shetty, is well bought out in the film. Zahir, which stars Manoj Bajpai and Dia Mirza is also interesting. While the entire package of ten is rivetting in itself, not all strike an emotional chord as the Rice Plate, Puranmaas and Gubbare do. These three have a moving narrative, great performances and masterly direction.

One realizes that the attempt is to bring different kinds of stories together. But not all of the stories have that which makes good cinema, the twist in the tale notwithstanding. But this is an interesting attempt by Gupta and his production house to infuse an element of novelty into mainstream Hindi cinema.

“Why would anyone like to watch a movie with 10 different stories? A movie should be a full length experience. Is cinema a good medium for multiple story telling?” all these questions I had in mind when I had thought of reviewing “Dus Kahaniya”. While handing over the ticket to the boy at the door of the theater, I felt like I am entering a film festival or for an arty sharty film.

The White Feather Montage has the “kaante” song in the background… it was exactly what I was thinking… “jaane kya hoga rama re….”

 ---- to read full review, please click www.bollywoodreviews.net

Very Good - that's my rating as a whole.

I would rate the stories as under (the following are categorised according to the story content, again my personal view only ...) :

To look out for :

           4 - Strangers in the night

           5 - Zahir

           6 - Lovedale

           8 - Rice Plate

           Of these, 'Rice Plate' was my personal favorite, given that its

           directorial debut of Rohit Roy. The acting and the theme was

           phenomenol.

           I would have probably put 'Gubbare' in the same league, but

           unfortunately, one senses the twist before it arrives.

Good :

           3 - Poornamashi

           9 - Gubbare

             Herein comes my moment of the movie - the kissing scene

             involving Nana Patekar. You can almost feel the tear

             trickling down your eye.

Average :

           None

Bad :

           1 - Matrimony (theme not clear)

           2 - High on the highway (the only story that has been dragged

                 unnecessarily)

           7 - Sex on the beach (again disappoints you with the climax)

           10 - Rise and Fall (briliant technically, but the story - a fuss)

Overall, the editing and background music are the highlights of the movie, with brilliant acting by everyone - ranging from the newcomer Neha Uberoi (in Lovedale) to the indispensable part of Sanjay Gupta - Sanjay Dutt.

The best venture from one of my favorite directors - Sanjay Gupta. A must watch, but only if you think you like the different !!

The gist is a small incident can change your outlook towards life.

This movie has 10 stories. No common character and they do not meet in the end (other then for a casting song).

Shantanu has already described all the 10 stories. I'll pick 3 of my favorites.

1. Night With A Stranger.

Crux of the story "things are misinterpreted at first look". Neha Dhupiya played awesome role in this story.

2. Puranmasi 

 Interrelated events resulting into destruction. Collapse of whole life of Amrita. This story was heart-wrecking .

3. Rise and Fall.

Thirst for power blinds even a closest friends. But rule of the world is what goes up comes down someday. Thats the story of Baba and Nawab.

This movie displayed wide spectrum of human emotions and human life. Destiny deciding incidents. Although this is amalgam of 10 short stories (10 mins each) its much better then the ones of RGV's factory.

Movie is certainly watch-able  once.

Do tell me about your favorites. 

Dus Kahaniyaa is a sequence of 10 stories :) (what else to expect ?). All of them are independent of each other. Each film has a little twist in it - I liked most of the movies. Some of them were pretty neat. The themes of the movies varied from gangster,love story, ghost, collegiaps, marital discord, hindu-muslim angle - good variety !

The best point was if you get bored with a film (I didnt like 2 of them), it ends in less than 15 mins :).

I liked the concept.  I would recommend everyone to go and see this film !  

First things first, this is a good movie or rathr I should say a good concept, before you start getting bored of the same story the story ends, and to entertain you for a period of 2 Hrs 30 mins they ahve 10 different stories, all are logical and good, every story has a good twist in the end, and before you start getting bored of a story ... it ends

Detailed review:

Story1: Matrimony

Good twist, this one is my favorite in all the 10 stories. Mandira Bedi is looking good, or rather hot I should say. This is about a lonely bored housewife and what she does to kill her boredom or rather spice up her life, but she finds out in the end that it is not only her who is spicing her life ..... ;)

Story 2: High on the highway

This is a wierd story, about a couple in college who have a wierd timepass after getting drunk out of their mind they go for a walk on the highway everyday since the last theree years, today is the last day of college , they decide to do the same, Jimmy Shergill is in love with Masumi Makhija, but she thinks that love complicates matters, but on the last day of their college life when they decide to take a walk on the highway, life after that is not all the same.

Story 3: Puranmasi

Miniisha Lamba is looking cute as always :P Amrita singh is her mother, she is soon getting married, Amrita is not treated well by her husband, but then she (Miniisha) always cheers her up , one day she does the same as she always did, and in that cheering up Amrita Singh commited some mistakes which screwed everybody's life. Good Story!

Story 4: Stranger in the night

Neha Dhupia and Mahesh Manjarekar are  the lead characters in this story, they play this wierd game on their marriage anniversary evry time, to tell each other if they cheated the other one, so Mahesh had already told Neha about his physical enconters, it was the turn of Neha now, he is sarcastically giving comments, but then there is a very good twist in the end when Neha ends her story.

Story 5: Zahir

Manoj Bajpai is an employee in the bank and thinks of quitting his job to persue his dream of writing a novel, shifts into a new apartment where Dia Mirza lives, immediately falls in love with her. But she gets really upset with him when he tries to get initimate with her once. what follows after this is a saga of male-ego-hurted type of story, this also has a big twist in the end, I didnt like this story though

Story 6: Lovedale 

girl borads the train to meet a guy for matrimonial alliance, but she ends up getting off the train at a station named "Lovedale" as she has a belonging of a co pasenger, what follwos now is a fairy tale love story.....

Story 7: Sex on the Beach

Dino Morea (whom I hate) is sitting on a beach, tired of boredom, then he discovers a book in the sand , signs it, and then from somewhere a drop dead gorgeous... hot girls appears on the beach, they end up flirting with each other, but then she calls Dino to her place for............. but something else was supposed to happen.

Story 8: Rice Plate

I loved this story, Shabana Azmi is a religious south Indian lady, she is very particular about who is a hindu and who is a muslim, I guess on these terms she decides to talk to people, use their services (eg Taxi). She meets Naseer at Bandra station which changes her entire outlook. I liked this one!

Story 9: Gubbare

This one has Rohit Roy, Nana Patekar and Natasha. Pretty predicatable concentrates on the nitty gritty fights involved in married life. Okish story.

Story 10: Rise and Fall

This story has style, action, and above all Sanju Baba. not much of story line, Sanju baba is a don, whose supari is given by his right hand Suniel Shetty. The story has good action and obviuosly style by Sanju Baba. I liked it :P

Overall Rating: 3/5

Worth watching once