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at 05:33:07 pm on December 8, 2007
2 and 8, doesn’t really make 10.
Well I watched Dus Kahaniyan. Before I get into the review let me state this. I am sure you know people who are nothing but ‘wanna-bes’. They have NO substance within themselves, because instead of knowing who they themselves are, they becomes monkeys trying to imitate people and/or things that they themselves do not understand. Like you know? Those folks who listen to the latest ’super-hit’ English song loudly in their posh cards and never know that the words really mean. Yeah exactly!! I do not mean to sound horrible, but seriously there are a lot of these in today’s media in Mumbai. They have the money, they have the fame, and yet they are nothing but want-to-be folk, monkey-ing around, and have no idea that they can be cool, by being themselves, being proud of their own roots rather than wanting to be someone else.
Well some of these people have a lot of money, and access to and opportunities to be on the silver screen. Here they can make good stuff, be cool being characters that they understand and can pull off, however here too, they just want to be someone else. They now have access to ‘damn good’ international cult and underground cinema from across the world, and they think that if they merely copy it, they will be ‘the’ ones amongst their fellow shallow colleagues and audiences who are like that too. Welcome to Dus Kahaniyan. Typical just that and typical Sanjay Gupta – some style and NO content.
Reel Life – 10 stories, not original in the slightest. Some you’ve read, some you’ve seen in other international films (like the rice plate), some are folk stories, some you have read in your inbox as forwards – you get the drift. So these stories have been taken and made into 10 short films. Directed by 6 directors, well most of them direct one film, the rest are directed by the self-centred producer – Mr. Gupta himself. The treatment of the film too is nothing original, there are films made like these in other languages across the world, so please don’t one of you try and challenge me on this. Instead get on the net and read about the world, the progress that cinema is making outside Bollywood, and you will gain yourself some good education. I must stress here though, that there was one story ‘Strangers In The Night’ which really had a nice twist to it. What came across as a typical Neha Dupia sleazy, infact ended up really touching my heart. There there was 2 stories that I loved watching. These were ‘Gubbare’ staring Nana Patekar and “The Rice Plate’ staring Nasserudin Shah and Shabana Azmi. These weren’t necessarily good stories or well directed per say, but these actors are so damn good that theses stories stand out amongst the lot. The worse was ‘Sex On The Beach’, ‘Rise & Fall’ (Gawd, what were they thinking?) and ‘Love Dale’ (somebody wake up from the 80s cinema hangover)
Real Life – The love story in ‘Gubbare’ was quiet romantic and the message was lovely. We spend so much time fighting or in disagreement with our loved ones and we never realize that it is time lost. So fellow human, make the most of your lives and your love. Then there is the message in ‘The rice plate’, about how we create barriers between ourselves. Also as I mentioned above, ‘Strangers in the night’ did touch me, coz it showed a very beautiful side of humans. Everything else about the other films from a human angel is either strictly OK or has no story in them, let alone human messages.
Cinematically – Nothing great. Some style, very little substance, aka typical Sanjay Gupta. The music (back ground score) is ok, in all the films. The opening credits seemed clever in bits. Nothing great in terms of cinematography. The ‘Rise and Fall’ story has some good visuals, but that too is complete overshadowed by the stupidity of that entire story. Bottom line, this film is a DVD watch, IF you want to see something different. Different as it has not been seen in Bollywood, but nothing more than that
Finally – I do need to say that I recently watched Saawariya. I will write my review on that film. I do not disagree with the rest of the audience on the overall faith of the film, but I do need to review it. That’s next. Ok to conclude the year, thank God for little mercies eh? Yeap. I’m waiting to watch Amir Khan’s film.
Tagore, lives and works in Dubai. He is the guardian of a peace and humanitarian group. Read more about him at www.tagorealmeida.com He is also a script-writer and a short film maker.
