Dus Tola Review By Komal Nahta

Star cast: Manoj Bajpayee, Aarti Chhabria, Dilip Prabhavalkar.

Plot: Manoj gifts a ten-tola gold necklace to his lady love, Aarti, so that her father allows them to marry. But Manoj proposes and Dilip Prabhavalkar disposes.

What’s Good: The comedy; the performances of the cast; the dialogues.

What’s Bad: The television serial-like drama.

Verdict: Although entertaining, Dus Tola will prove to be a non-starter.

Loo break: Not really.

Warner Bros. and Aryan Brothers Entertainment’s Dus Tola is the story of Shankar (Manoj Bajpayee), a goldsmith who lives in a quaint coastal town, Sonapur. Shankar loves Suvarnalata (Aarti Chhabria) but the latter’s father, Daya Shastri (Dilip Prabhavalkar), is against their budding romance. Suvarnalata cooks up a fool-proof plan to manipulate her father into accepting the alliance. She convinces a smitten Shankar to make her a 10-tola gold necklace so that he can prove to her father that he is capable of looking after her post-marriage.

In spite of not being well off, Shankar gifts the 10-tola necklace to Suvarnalata after putting everything he has, at stake. However, Daya Shastri wants his daughter to marry Ravi (Siddharth Makkar). Does Suvarnalata ditch Shankar and get married toRavi? What is the stand of the locals in general and Shankar’s friends – Bholenath (Ninad Kamat), Qazi (Govind Namdeo), Atmaram (Asif Basra), Geeta (Pallavi Sharda), Abdul Chawla (Brijendra Kala) – and family members in particular?

The story, penned by Raghunath Paleri, is based on a folk tale. The screenplay (Raghunath Paleri, Sunil Saigal and Ajoy) and story are interesting and have several entertaining twists and turns, but the whole drama looks more suited for a television serial. Also, the film moves on a single track, which makes it not very arresting for the viewer. Dialogues (by Sunil Saigal) are very witty and complement the screenplay beautifully.

Manoj Bajpayee plays Shankar efficiently, getting into the skin of the goldsmith’s character. Aarti Chhabria looks glamorous and acts ably. She stands her own in the dramatic scenes. Siddharth Makkar is so-so. Pallavi Sharda does a fair job. Govind Namdeo leaves a mark. Asrani is endearing, as always. Dilip Prabhavalkar shines! He is absolutely first-rate. Bharti Achrekar does very well. Brijendra Kala and Asif Basra lend excellent support. Ninad Kamat is alright. Kishore Nandlaskar is superb as Bhaskar. Suchita Thatte and Shiju Kataria make their presence felt. Kunwar Pragy Arya is okay. Vidya Malvade performs well.

Ajoy’s direction is honest to the script. The debut-making director shows a good flair for comedy. Music (Sandesh Shandilya) is quite melodious but the songs aren’t popular. Gulzar’s lyrics are nice. Cinematography (S. Kumar) is of standard.

On the whole, Dus Tola is an entertaining fare, no doubt, but it won’t work at the box-office because it is more like a TV serial or a stage-play and less like a film. Lack of big names in the cast, poor promotion and a weak title will make the film a non-starter.