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Dus
Kahaniyaan**
*ing: Sanjay Dutt, Suniel Shetty, Mandira Bedi, Naseeruddin
Shah, Shabana Azmi, Nana Patekar, Dino Morea, Amrita Singh, Aftab
Shivdasani, Manoj Bajpai and Mahesh Manjrekar
Directed
by Meghna Gulzar, Sanjay Gupta, Rohit Roy and Apoorva Lakhia
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Thanks
to TV promos, Dus Kahaniyaan's claim to being the first film of its
kind with a collection of ten short films directed by 6 different
directors and a list of 30 + actors is fairly common knowledge.
However why the producers would want to play up the novelty card is
beyond me since Ram Gopal Varma's Darna Mana Hai employed the multiple
stories, multiple directors technique a couple of years ago, albeit
with a drastically different theme.
Darna Marna Hai and its sequel didn't work and neither does Dus Kahaniyaan.
Well at least six or seven of the kahanis certainly don't.
Let's start off with the best of the lot, which happens to be Rice
Plate, Pooranmashi and in part Zahir. What makes these stories a fascinating
watch is how well the characters are developed, the narratives played
out and twists delivered in a span of just over 10 minutes. |
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Rice
Plate is the clear winner here mainly because of Shabana Azmi's delightful
portrayal of a Tamil woman on her way to meet her granddaughter. The
movie delves into the issue of religious intolerance without getting
preachy and has genuinely funny moments. All in all, the most enjoyable
story from the collection.
The pairing of Shabana Azmi and Naseerudin Shah as well as the themes,
the likes of which seem to have disappeared from the Bollywood of
'Shining India' makes one nostalgic for the cinema of the '70s and
'80s.
Pooranmashi starring Amrita Singh gives us a close glimpse of life
in rural Punjab with a heartbreaking tale of repression, intolerance,
gossip mongering and the tragedy that ensues.
Meghna Gulzar's direction is intelligent, sensitive and painstaking
in the recreation of rural life. It makes one realize what a vast
spectrum of locally relevant issues are being denied projection in
mainstream cinema.
Zahir with Manoj Bajpai and Diya Mirza deals maturely with the theme
of deceptive appearances and the twist was one of the best in the
entire collection. However, something was a bit off here. Maybe it
was the annoying expression perpetually plastered on Manoj Bajpai's
face or simply because the bad taste left by the preceding and following
stories that rubbed off on this kahani as well.
In fact, this is one of the film's main flaws. It takes time to delve
into the nuances of a good story and with their short duration, the
viewer's taste buds are, literally, not cleared of the preceding story
to fully appreciate the next one. Meghna Gulzar's sensitive handling
of an age old tale and Shabana Azmi's brilliance seem more or less
lost amongst some very twisted, abstract and half baked ideas.
Secondly some of the stories would have worked as sensitive character
studies or as 'slices of life' without the mandatory twist in the
end. Cases in point are the stories Ghubbare and Strangers in the
Night.
Ghubbare features a heart warming performance by Nana Patekar but
the entirely predictable twist effectively ruins the whole piece.
Similarly the obsession with twist endings totally wastes any potential
Strangers in the Night had. Its theme regarding the elusive nature
of love and ambiguity of relationships set amongst communal riots
could have been developed into a deep, meaningful and touching tale.
Yet the manner in which the story unfolds totally insults the promise
in the story. The decision to employ some slick filming techniques
actually backfires and distracts rather than adding to the appeal.
The rest of the stories are too absurd, too contrived or just don't
have the substance to sustain the viewer's interest. Matrimony with
its cliché of a bored housewife embarking on an extra marital
affair was strictly okay even though Mandira Bedi deserves a mention
for giving one of the better performances amongst the younger lot;
Rise and Fall with Suniel Shetty and Sanjay Dutt is the usual mix
of 'bhaigiri', action, power and brotherhood with a lot of style but
very little soul; High on the Highway starring Jimmy Shergill fails
to engage the viewer.
Lovedale with Aftab Shivdasani does not even deserve a line for a
plot that is literally an insult to the viewer's intelligence. Dino
Morea starrer Sex on the Beach may as well have viewers, ogling males
inclusive, screaming: "Buss" with the kahaniyaan.
Performance wise the veterans are sure winners. Shabana Azmi, Amrita
Singh, Nana Patekar and Naseeruddin Shah's performances are top notch
and amply demonstrate that old is really gold.
On the whole it actually seems incredible that none of the stories
in the collection are more than 10-12 minutes long.
The next time someone complains about the overwhelmingly crazy pace
of life and how fast time seems to go by, you know what to recommend!
-Mariam Khurram
*YUCK
**WHATEVER
***GOOD
****SUPER
*****AWESOME
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