As the title itself suggests, Dus Kahaniyaan is an innovative concept where in a single film, there are 10 independent short stories. About 4 or 5 of them are notable from among the ten, which are summarized here:
Matrimony ( Director: Sanjay Gupta)
The Sarins (Arbaaz Khan and Mandira Bedi) are a happily married couple. On the pretext of meeting her ailing aunt every Thursday, Mandira has a dark secret, unknown to her husband that she has a lover – handsome hunk Sudhanshu Pandey. What is not know to her is that he too has a lover. The director somewhat establishes this as a story of betrayal and faith. For those who always reach late to see a movie, its okay to miss this one.
Zahir (Director: Sanjay Gupta)
Dia Mirza and Manoj Bajpai are a single man and a girl next door. Manoj has left his lucrative job to take out time for writing a book. Dia is a sweet girl meets Manoj in the elevator and they happen to be neighbors on the same floor of a high rise building in Mumbai. Manoj develops a fascination for her, wants to get closer but is warded off by her… there are some twists in here.
High On the Highway (Director: Hansal Mehta)
A love story of Jimmy Shergill & Masumeh where it is just the highway which symbolizes their companionship and their unspoken love or is the director himself, being self indulgent, isn’t sure whether the characters do drugs or are addicted to alcohol. And why they walk on dark highways is not clear.
Lovedale (Director: Jasmeet Dhodi)
Neha Uberoi and Aftab Shivdasani happen to meet by chance on a rainy day in a hill station – Lovedale. There are appearances by Anooradha Patel and Anupam Kher in this tale of lost love which too has a supernatural twist in the end.
Sex on the Beach (Director: Apoorva Lakhia)
A chilly story that manages to scare the wit out of you. Dino Morea Dino picks a worn out book on the beach and, as instructed, writes his name on the first page. The character of the book comes alive into an awesome woman Tareena Patel. They have a great time together, but suddenly everything changes. This rendezvous of Dino Morea with hot looking Tareena Patel has lust strewn with the supernatural. This story should give you some chills down your spine.
Pooranmashi (Director: Meghna Gulzar)
An adapted short story about the Mother-Daughter bond. A mother (Amrita Singh) would do anything to make her daughter’s (Minisha Lamba) life happy. Her only daughter is about to get married but an incident changes their lives forever. The mother’s dark secret is out in the open (affair with Parmeet Sethi), but the villagers think it is her daughter who is to blame. Her daughter’s marriage is already doomed. The daughter, seeing her mother’s plight, and understanding the truth, sacrifices her life by jumping into the well. A brilliant and a moving story.
Strangers In The Night (Director: Sanjay Gupta)
Every anniversary the married couple (Mahesh Manjrekar and Neha Dhupia) share a secret. Its Neha’s turn this year and she begins narrating an exciting encounter with a stranger at the railway station’s waiting room. What she begins telling is not what was actually imagined by the viewer.
Rice Plate (Director: Rohit Roy)
A hindu lady (Shabana Azmi) of South Indian origin is on her way to meet her grand daughter. Being a strict hindu she is averse to being in or coming in close to people of the faith other than her own. In a hurry, some mistakes and misunderstandings she realizes that the most important faith in life is the religion of humanity, rather than the one she practiced. Naseeruddin Shah also features in this story.
Gubbare (Director: Sanjay Gupta)
A squabbling couple played by Anita and Rohit Roy is on their bus journey where Anita picks up a conversation with another passenger carrying balloons for his wife – Nana Patekar who tells her about how much he loves his wife, and more so – how less is one’s life to have arguments or differences.
Rise and Fall (Director: Sanjay Gupta)
A much expected highly stylized gangster story supposedly to be a thriller about the interactions of two young ‘shooter’ boys and a parallel story of conflict between the underworld dons (Sanjay Dutt and Suniel Shetty) of this city. Again there is some attempt to show the unwanted shaky camerawork or put it simply – the over indulgence of the director.
Dus Kahaniyaan comes from Sanjay Gupta’s production house-WHITE FEATHER FILMS whose past films had lots and lots of style! Although only about 4 – 5 stories are impressive, it is a novel concept by this production house, which may not exactly be a hit but is refreshing to see such experimental films.
Cast of Dus Kahaniyaan:
Sanjay Dutt Suniel Shetty
Dino Morea Tareena Patel
Jimmy Shergill Masumeh Makhija
Amrita Singh Minisha Lamba Parmeet Sethi Mahesh Manjrekar Neha Dhupia
Dia Mirza Manoj Bajpai
Neha Uberoi Aftab Shivdasani
Anooradha Patel Anupam Kher
Shabana Azmi Naseeruddin Shah
Anita Rohit Roy Nana Patekar
Arbaaz Khan Mandira Bedi Sudhanshu Pandey
Credits:
Produced by: White Feather Films
Directed by:
Jasmeet Dhodhi, Meghna Gulzar, Sanjay Gupta, Apoorva Lakhia, Hansal Mehta, Sudhir Mishra
Writing credits: Javed Akhtar (Dialogue)
Vishal Bharadwaj Dialogue (story) (screenplay)
S. Farhan dialogue (story) (screenplay)
Rajiv Gopalkrishnan story and screenplay
Meghna Gulzar dialogue, Sampooran Singh Gulzar dialogue (story) (screenplay)
Sanjay Gupta story and screenplay
Gautam Kohli story and screenplay
Suresh Nair story and screenplay
Shivani Tibrewala story and screenplay
Raj Vasant dialogue
Produced by Sanjay Dutt, Sanjay Gupta
Executive Producer – Gary Van Shipley
Original Music by Pritam Chakraborty
Cinematography:
Aseem Bajaj, Hemant Chaturvedi, Amit Roy
Film Editing by Bunty Nagi
Costume Design – Sanjeev Mulchandani
Sound Department:
Baylon Fonseca – Sound Designer
Stunt Coordinator – Ravi Dewan
Head of Marketing and Promotions – Gautam Kohli
Design Visualizer – Mihir Shah
Dus Kahaniyaan, movie review