Dus Kahaniyaan

About the film

Dus Kahaniyaan (transl. Ten stories) is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language anthology film featuring ten different stories directed by a host of six directors: Sanjay Gupta, Apoorva Lakhia, Meghna Gulzar, Rohit Roy, Hansal Mehta and Jasmeet Dhodhi.

The film features an ensemble cast comprising Sanjay Dutt, Suniel Shetty, Nana Patekar, Naseeruddin Shah, Manoj Bajpayee, Arbaaz Khan, Jimmy Sheirgill, Amrita Singh, Minissha Lamba, Sudhanshu Pandey, Anupam Kher, Aftab Shivdasani, Diya Mirza, Mandira Bedi, Mahesh Manjrekar, Neha Dhupia, Shabana Azmi, Masumeh Makhija, Rohit Roy, Anita Hassanandani, Anuradha Patel, Dino Morea, Tarina Patel, Neha Oberoi, Parmeet Sethi and Anup Soni.

Plot

The bored wife of an MNC vice president Rahul Sarin, Pooja, has an extramarital affair with Aditya Singh, an army officer she met on a chatroom. She meets him every Thursday on the pretext of visiting her aunt. At home she is a doting and dutiful wife. She describes her affair as not only for sex but also for genuine love and consideration. As it turns out, her lover has to report to his post and gives her a beautiful diamond necklace. She loves it but is hesitant to take it. When the officer insists, she devises a plan. She goes to a jeweller and hands over the necklace with an arrangement that she be given a coupon, which under the pretext of a lucky draw and she'd be given her necklace. The next morning, her husband goes to collect the "prize". He calls her from his office and asks her to come over to see what she has got. She goes with great enthusiasm, but to her utter dismay finds a small diamond ring. She comes out of his cabin and tries to call the jeweler. Her cell phone does not get reception, so she turns to her husband's secretary and asks her to dial the number, only to spot the necklace on the secretary. The secretary mentions that it is from her "boyfriend" revealing that her husband is also having an affair with his secretary however since she cannot confront him without revealing her own affair she is "hoisted with her own petard".

Two college graduates, Kaamna and Kabir who are in love with each other have a habit of getting high and taking a walk along the highway. On the night after their graduation when they are walking down the road, a bunch of goons try to kidnap Kaamna. They succeed in spite of Kabir putting up a fight. Kaamna is rescued by cops but Kabir feels responsible for her kidnapping and slashes his wrists. He dies leaving Kaamna crying by his bed.

Mala's daughter Mini has just been engaged and her father is out on business once again leaving the ladies alone. Mala has led a loveless life and on this particular day her daughter adorns her mother with a colourful dupatta (veil) and comments on how pretty she looks. Mala realises that it is the night of full moon, and her lover promised her long ago that he would be waiting outside the door every full moon night. For once she decides to open it and let her desire take over her. After spending the night with him in the fields she returns home in the morning; many villagers notice the colourful dupatta on her head and mistake her for her daughter. When the villagers come to break the marriage describing the incident, Mini learns that it was her mother who went to meet the man. She cannot recite what has happened, as it would defame her mother, but she in unable to bear the taunts of the villagers and thus she commits suicide by jumping into the well.

Music

The soundtrack was released on 6 September 2007. Joginder Tuteja from Bollywood Hungama gave it 4 stars out of 5 stars, noting that it had everything for everyone and that too in a lavish and wholehearted manner, in the form of a Lounge and Club outing mixing dance numbers with heartfelt melodies as well as Gulzar poems for each of the film's 10 stories, recited by stars from the film.

Reception

Times of India gave the film 3.5 stars out of 5, remarking that almost all the stories were deftly told, with the mandatory twist in the climax which kept the viewer riveted. Taran Adarsh from Bollywood Hungama gave the film 3 stars out of 5, praising most of the stories, but was unimpressed with the High On The Highway and Rise & Fall segments.

Elvis Dsilva from Rediff.com gave the movie 2.5 stars out of 5 and was similarly unimpressed with High On The Highway, while feeling the Rise & Fall story brought the film to an "appropriately flashy close." Sonia Chopra of Sify gave the movie 1.5 stars calling the movie balderdash.

The film opened with a collection of ₹1 crore (US$100,000) and collecting ₹5.98 crore (US$630,000) in the opening weekend. Made on a ₹21 crore (US$2.2 million) budget, the film failed to recover its budget and failed commercially.

Key details