Dus Tola Movie Review : A lazy goof-up

This film tries to belong to a genre that Bollywood stopped attempting a while ago. Think of the rustic charm at the heart of a simplistic drama — it isn’t something Hindi films routinely deal with. Dus Tola sets up a milieu that harks back to good old Malgudi Days on black and white television. In that sense, this is an unusual Bollywood flick.

The film unfolds at a languid pace and doesn’t try to add any subtext to its basic plot. You have the hero Shankar Sunar ( Manoj Bajpayee), a village goldsmith who loves the rich astrologer’s daughter, Suvarna ( Aarti Chhabria). To win her over, he makes a 10- tola gold necklace for her, which she accepts. And then it turns out Suvarna is more crafty than she looks. After taking the necklace, she promptly agrees to marry the Dubai- returned hunk dad’s chosen for her.

Crestfallen Shankar, who was anyway struggling to make ends meet for his family, decides to wait for the right moment to avenge the insult. The film builds up well, if somewhat slowly. The problem lies in the way debutant director Ajoy tries to wrap up the story. The climax is wholly amateurish.

More than its story, the film is more about an assortment of interesting characters. Manoj Bajpayee suitably underplays his role of a poor goldsmith seething with silent rage. Aarti Chhabria has her moments in a limited role. Govind Namdeo as the much- married rich man of the village and Brijendra Kala in the bit role of the village teastall owner are likeable. The rest just come and go.

Rating - 1.5 / 5