Dus Kahaniyaan

You can blame Sanjay Gupta for making violent movies, based on the underworld or the bizarre. But one needs to give him credit for doing stuff thats not too run-of-the-mill.

Having gathered a young crew of directors, mostly novice, comprising of Meghna Gulzar (Just Married), Apoorva Lakhia (Shootout at L'wala/Ek Ajnabee), Rohit Roy amongst others, Gupta gives them less than 15 minutes time to showcase his own concepts.

The collection opens with MATRIMONY (4/10). Mandira Bedi is surprisingly good.

Next up is HIGH ON THE HIGHWAY (1/10). Jimmy Shergil gets irritating.

POORANMASHI (3/10) brings Meghna on who gets a good job from Amrita Singh. Lamba is wasted. Nice rural touches.

STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT (4/10) gets one added star for its narrative style. It is made to deceive. But unbelievable. Manjrekar disappoints as the husband.

The last pre-intermission segment is ZAHIR (4/10) and this one disappoints. Crudely shot by Gupta. Manoj Vajpayee is uninterested & way below-par.

LOVEDALE (4/10) is a slow tale and you can smell the super-natural halfway through the story. Anupam Kher is wasted.

Apoorva Lakhia's SEX ON THE BEACH (1/10 is the worst of the lot. Poor performances. Crudely presented.

RICE PLATE (9/10) by debutante Rohit Roy is a pleasant surprise. Roy infuses immediate charm and is considerably helped by Shabana Azmi's brilliant portrayal of an orthodox religious Southie. Azmi takes just a few frames to warm up but ends up in control. Naseer Shah is understated. (This, in fact, is 'borrowed' from a Jeffrey Archer short story).

GUBBARE (3/10) is passable only because of Patekar. Gulzar's script doesn't really shine. Nana is a natural.

RISE & FALL (5/10) has two stories intertwined (gets very confusing too). Lots of style. I personally found Suniel Shetty a notch above than Dutt. The two teenage taporis are really good.

Overall worth a look. Technical values are pretty good. Some segments have good editing but sound designing is improper for this genre.