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.
