Dus Kahaniyaan

Director: Vishal Bharadwaj, Apoorva Lakhia, Hansal Mehta, Sudhir Mishra, Jasmeet Dhodi
Producer: White Feather Films
Starring: Sanjay Dutt, Nana Patekar, Arjun Rampal, Aftab Shivdasani, Viveik Anand Oberoi, Arbaaz Khan, Rohit Roy, Bipasha Basu, Tanushree Datta, Mandira Bedi, Neha Dhupia, Anupam Kher, Jimmy Shergill, Sammir Dattani, Sudhanshu Pandey, Tusshar Kapoor

Weaving several stories in a movie isn't new in Bollywood but a movie with ten stories made into one is indeed a great experience undertaken by the director-in-chief. In the past, 'Darna Mana Hai' and 'Darna Zaroori Hai' have been the two movies with multiple stories woven in one. However, 'Dus Kahaniyaan' is just different from both these movies.

In fact, there has never been an inter-link of stories among these movies. This is the USP of 'Dus Kahaniyaan' that Hindi cinema has witnessed for the first time and perhaps managed to be quite a successful experience. Let's examine the movie from other aspects.

To begin with, we come across 'Matrimony' with a cast of senior artists like Arbaaz Khan, Mandira Bedi and Sudhanshu Pandey in it. Is the director trying his hands on Paris, je t'aime ? Maybe, but he doesn't reach nearer it.

However, the story is told in little time without boring the viewers. In this respect, the effort has been successful, indeed. Then comes : 'High on the highway' with no less than Jimmy Sheirgill and Mausmeh; 'Pooranmashi' with Amrita Singh, Minnisha Lamba and Parmeet Sethi, among the actors.

Both these stories precede 'Rice Plate' starring Bollywood's top stars like Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi followed by 'Gubbare' casting Nana Patekar, Rohit Roy and Anita Hassanandani.

All these stories are very well written and interlinked though each one is independent of the other and tackled differently. Neither was it possible with so many top artists performing in one movie. So far so good.Now follows the Aftab Shivdasani-Neha Uberoi's 'Lovedale'.

This seems to be a "horrible" piece like the Ramsay's did in the distant past. Incidentally, it's Jasmeet Dhodi, the director's debut . The story doesn't seem to be good enough to impress the viewers. 'Rise and Fall' with ( who else? ) but Sanjay Dutt and Suniel Shetty follows it . Here, the story is based on interesting conversations between the two Bollywood stalwarts, and interestingly in the background of the actor's backyard! It's indeed an innovation.

Analyzing the category of the stories, we find that those in the first half of the movie revolve around sexual repression, while the second half is full of super-natural and the underworld themes though combined with some humor . Yes, the stories are well written and equally well implemented.

But, we regret that the duration of ten minutes to complete a story hasn't been able to take the best out of most of the seasoned actors. Anyway, even in such unfavorable circumstances, much impact has been noticed in as far as Shabana Azmi, Nana Patekar, Jimmy Sheirgill, Neha Dhupia and Mausmeh are concerned ; they have succeeded in maintaining their usual selves.

Sanjay Gupta for once has directed the major chunk of short films by concentrating on the story rather than the style. However, he applies his method formula again in the case of 'Rise and Fall'. And, luckily, he succeeds.


Except for Jasmeet Dhodi who needs a little more effort on his part, others like Apoorva Lakhia, Hansal Mehta, Rohit Roy and Meghna Gulzar seem to have done very well.

So, Sanjay Gupta deserves great appreciation for his novel and bold attempt of successfully putting in ten different stories in one - 'Dus Kahaniyaan'. We are confident that the viewers would like to watch this new experiment of Sanjay Gupta keeping in view his limitations.