Kahaniyaan bas!

Dus Kahaniyaan
Cast: Shiney Ahuja, Soha Ali Khan, Rajat Kapoor
Direction: Several
Rating: *

Most people get just one chance, maybe two. But the viewer gives ‘Dus Kahaniyaan’ 10 such chances and as Gabbar Singh would say, “Phir bhi khalli haath waapis aagaye.” While it is a great idea to cater to the ever-decreasing attention span of the viewer by giving him the cinematic version of a book of short stories, the fact is that each story still has to engage if not enthral. 

'Dus Kahaniyaan' premiere party

None of the 10 stories picked by producer-director Sanjay Gupta and his merry men and women manages to do so. The only one that stands out is Rohit Roy’s ‘Rice Plate’. That’s because of the impeccable performance by stalwarts Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah, notably Ms Azmi.

‘Strangers in the Night’ (Sanjay Gupta) with Mahesh Manjrekar and Neha Dhupia is another interesting one with a twist. Lowest on the rung are ‘High on the Highway’ (Hansal Mehta) and ‘Rise and Fall’ (Sanjay Gupta and Hansal Mehta). Without getting into individual merits or the lack thereof of each story, suffice it to say that the acting is ordinary, the direction amateur and the choice of subject banal. Only the technical execution is classy, an expected feature of a Sanjay Gupta film.

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