Dus Kahaniyaan: A good effort

After the horror series of Darna Mana Hain, and the Darna Zaroori Hain, Dus Kahaniyaan is the next movie based on a series of short stories. Dus Kahaniyaan is a series of 10 short films, with each movie being around 15 minutes each. Overall, since the time is short, these movies do not have much time for character development, or any songs. At some point, if you find that you really don't like a movie, it gets over real fast.
Overall, Dus Kahaniyaan has a pretty big cast since each short movie has its own set of characters. I was fairly impressed with some of the movies, while others were fairly predictable, and the horror one was actually sub-standard.
After watching the whole movie, my impression was that this genre of short movies is hard to sell. People like to get involved with a movie, see the character developing, and spend some quality time getting enthralled. I am not sure whether such bite-sized chunks of entertainment will work. Well, enough about the effect, let us see the movies individually:
Matrimony (Directed by Sanjay Gupta): Starring Arbaaz Khan, Mandira Bedi, and Sudhanshu Pandey. This is a nice movie with a twist. A bored housewife with an MNC busy husband has an affair, and then gets presented with a necklace. Trying to show as if it is a lucky gift, she asks her husband to fetch the gift; but in a twist, she finds out the true affairs regarding her husband.
High on the Highway (Directed by Hansel Mehta): Starring Jimmy Shergill and Masumeh Makhija, this is a slightly offbeat movie about 2 college students in love with each other and also in love with getting high. At one such time, she gets kidnapped and he can't do a thing. Even though she is saved, he guiltily kills himself. So so.
Pooranmasi (Directed by Meghna Gulzar): A delightful but very tragic movie starring Amrita Singh, Parmeet Sethi and Minisha Lamba. A tale of love amidst social customs, and how letting one's feelings take over can cause severe problems. Minisha is getting married, and tries to brighten up her mother's life. This feeling combined with a pining for her old lover who waits for her every pooranmasi causes her to succumb to desire once. However, she is seen and her daughter (because she is wearing her daughter's dupatta) is believed to be characterless. Her daughter realizes the truth and jumps into a well.
Strangers in the Night (Directed by Sanjay Gupta): Starring Mahesh Manjrekar and Neha Dhupia, this is an incredible movie. Both of them talk about relationships on their anniversary, and Neha talks about an erotic encounter with a strange man in a railway station waiting room. As Mahesh gets jealous, the truth is realized; it was about saving a child during a communal riot.
Zahir (Directed by Sanjay Gupta): Starring Dia Mirza and Manoj Bajpai, this is also a story with a twist. About the passion that develops in a relationship, and the frustration in that relationship, the movie also passes in a message about unsafe sex and AIDS.
Lovedale (Directed by Jasmeet Dhodi): Starring Anupam Kher, Aftab Shivdasani, and Neha Oberoi, the movie involves the supernatural (in terms of a dead mother helping her son get married); overall, the movie was predictable, but also unconventional. After all, how often do you see a father asking a daughter about whether she thinks the marriage she is getting into is correct.
Sex on the Beach (Directed by Apoorva Lakhia): Starring Dino Morea and Tarina Patel, this is the horror movie. About a book on the beach that leads Dino into a trap that eventually kills him. The worst movie of the lot.
Rice Plate (Directed by Rohit Roy): Starring Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah, this is one of the better movies of the lot. A message about communal amity and biases, the movie stars Shabana as a South India grandmother who is rushing to meet her children. She is anti-Muslim, but over the course of the story, you see her losing her biases.
Gubbare (Directed by Sanjay Gupta): Starring Nana Patekar, Rohit Roy and Anita Hassanandani, this is a beautiful movie. During a quarrel between newly-weds Anita and Rohit, she starts talking to Nana; getting mesmerized as he talks about resolving his quarrels with his wife by gifting her balloons. It is only later that she realizes that his wife has been dead for 6 years and he visits her grave.
Rise & Fall (Directed by Sanjay Gupta): Starring Sanjay Dutt and Sunil Shetty, this is a movie that runs in forward and flashback mode, where Sanjay Dutt is the gangster leader, and Sunil Shetty is his side-kick. There is intrigue, back-biting, and the sudden fall of people who came up the violent way.