Date:09/12/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/12/09/stories/2007120958660200.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Ten stories sans a link

Star power: Banking on big names

Film: Dus Kahaniyan

Our brave new Bollywood continues to make half stabs at experimentation. After the box office disaster of ‘Darna Mana Hai’ and ‘Darna Zaroori Hai’, not to forget ‘Salam-e-Ishq’, comes this film. Half-a-dozen directors, half a score screenplay writers, more than a handful dialogue writers. And the film that talks of ten stories without one linking element.

At its base, it is almost like those good old television serials of the 1980s. No common linkage between one episode and the other aired a week later. It is the same here in this film directed by Sanjay Gupta, Rohit Roy, Meghna Gulzar and Hansal Mehta among others.

Some of the stories hold interest. Like the one involving old pros Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah, she is a Tamil Brahmin who cannot brook the touch of a Muslim; he is a cap-wearing Muslim, whose offer of a polite helping hand is rejected. There is a little message: at the end we are all human beings. Then there is Nana Patekar’s somewhat predictable behaviour, a seasoned lover who carries balloons for his wife! And Amrita Singh as the wrong-doing Punjabi woman. Separately these episodes hold interest. But what follows in between difficult to understand. What are the likes of Anooradha Patel, Neha Dhupia, Arbaaz Khan, Dino Morea and even Sanjay Dutt and Suniel Shetty doing? Sleep walking? Or merely bringing up the numbers. As an idea ‘Dus Kahaniyaan’ clicks. But it is an idea whose time has not come yet. And it won’t unless the directors present better fare, that is consistently engrossing, that has better dialogue, music. Sorry, ‘Dus Kahaniyaan’ fails to pass the muster.

ZIYA US SALAM