Dus Kahaniyaan---A review

There was quite some Publicity buzz around this movie, and it seemed quite interesting, so I had to take a look. This is an anthology of 10 short stories, in the visual format; 6 directors: Hansal Mehta, Rohit Roy, Meghna Gulzar, Apoorva Lakhia, Jasmeet Dhodi and Sanjay Gupta, paint an engrossing film of just above 100 minutes. So how is it? Well..let me first tell you about the 10 different stories.

The film starts out with quite an engrossing tale, called Matrimony, featuring Mandira bedi and Arbaaz Khan. Mandira Bedi is more famous for her spaghetti straps then her 'Shanti' and Arbaaz Khan is hardly known for his Acting Skills. Given this background, we hardly expect them to perform so well. The story has an 'O Henry-isque' ending, but the story works, even though it is quite predictable.

Then we have High on the Highway which is the worst of the lot. Not only do we have wooden performances from Jimmy Shergill and Masumeh Makhija,
but the director doesn't help either. There is no buildup, for which the frequent flashbacks are partly responsible. The main blame however lies on the story, which has no essence, or even the ending, where he dies a romeo-like-death, unable to handle a loss.

This is followed by a very wonderful film, Pooranmashi. It's a film staring Amrita Singh and Minsha Lambha. Within a few frames you start believing in both the characters, and mourn the eventual sad ending. However the scene where the daughter faces the villagers could have been better handled, given that there is hardly any interaction between the Mother-daughter, when the whole story revolves around them. There was so much potential for Minsha to act here, but she is not upto the task. Amrita Singh, however comes out with flying colours.

Strangers In The Night, is a film high on Substance as well as Style. It features Mahesh Manjrekar and Neha Dhupia, as a couple, unmasking their deepest secrets to each other. Here you have neha's character telling us about her most Intense moment, and We are first shown the incident from one angle, and then the same incident in it's entirety. These contrasting angles are so antagonistic, that instead of it being a twist in the tale that we would blame ourselves for, we tend to blame the director. This one, out of the 10, had the maximum potential, but until the second angle is better handled, it leaves us unsatisfied.

Zahir, is a film featuring Dia Mirza and Manoj Bajpai. It starts of quite well, with the canvas being painted in just a few scenes. They are beautifully handled, but then the story starts losing it's grip. It starts feeling jerky, and instead of the story moving continuously, we find that there are lots of gaps. The ending is as predictable as hell, and we are left mourning over what could have been.

Lovedale which stars Neha Uberoi and Aftab Shivdasani, is the first film after the intermission. It's a sweet love story, but I felt the writer was trying too hard to be 'arty'. It ends up looking like something a teenager would write and claim that it was going to be the next big thing.

Now comes Sex on the Beach, which is story featuring Dino Morea and some hot chick. This film provides the horror quotient to the anthology, and works beautifully due to the background music and cinematography. There are seriously scary moments during the film, and in a way provides an interesting contrast to the last one. It treats lust and paranormal phenomenon in a way that is antithetical to the last story, which I found to be quite thought provoking.

Now comes the most awaited section, Rice Plate, featuring Shabana Aazmi and Nassurudin Shah. We know that both of them have a lot of talent, but Shabana's portrayal sometimes feels like a Caricature. Nassurudin is perfect as expected with his understated performance, but when you get them together, magic happens. The débutante director is however unable to use them properly and he chose to focus on unimportant parts of the story, while glossing over the crux of the story, which was the realisation that dawns on Shabana's character.

The ninth film is called Gubbare, which has a stellar performance from Nana Patekar. Nana can set the screen on fire, on his day, and this was his day. The story moves towards its inevitable conclusion, but Nana's voice holds you hand along the way, and for once, the predictability is the strong point of the film. It leaves you feeling all warm and fuzzy inside, and not in a bad way.

The film ends with Rise and fall, which is the most stylish of the lot. It is low on substance, but you don't mind it. There are two parallel stories, and by mid point you realise that a flashback sequence is going on. The action is wonderfully shot in the rain. It might not be matrix level, but you feel each blow and cut. Sadly there is no novelty factor, because we have seen the same kind of stuff from him earlier.

Now that you know what the short films are all about, comes the important question. Does the Anthology work? The answer is not in black or white, but in the greys. Anthologies work when either you have a common theme, or if the sections provide a different insight to construct the whole. It is on this count that the film falters.

There is no unifying theme or idea. The only thing that could be construed to be the theme, would be the travails of lust... Sensual lust, carnal lust or even lust of power.

There have been attempts along this path in Bollywood by RGV, with his Darna mana hai series, but those failed because the individual stories sucked. Here the short films are of a higher caliber, and the film as a whole provide good entertainment for almost 2 hrs.