Dhobi Ghat: An atmospheric mood piece

A painter called Arun
A painter whose wife is abroad with his kid. He doesn’t get to see them. A home which is in Mohammed Ali road at the top of a colorful but archaic building. Easels everywhere, paints everywhere. Everywhere you look an artistic object and a mess the kind you’d only associate with an artist. Loads of coffee and tons of cigarettes.

A woman called Yasmin

A young married woman, who makes video diaries that Arun discovers when he takes up a flat on rent from the previous tenant who happens to be this orthodox Muslim woman. Whilst watching the videos she’s sent her brother, Aamir falls in love with her.

A Bourgeois girl called Shai

She has her heart in the right place. She’s the Parsi daughter of a builder who owns enough buildings for the next 5 generations to live with riches. She is here on a sabbatical. She has studied abroad and works in the world of finance and numbers but also paints; albeit with a camera. She’s smitten by Arun in a one night stand.

A dhobi called Munna

Sensitive, shy, honest, spirited, loyal, bhola but lovable Munna is a dhobi who aspires to be an actor, a star. But not in any narcissistic way, but in more of a ‘little boy’s dream’ way. He ends up befriending Shai and falls in love with her.

Mumbai – this vivacious, lively and spirited city has inspired many a film-maker, novelist, writer, playwright, poet in the past. Kiran Rao’s Dhobi Ghat makes a collage of four characters in this dynamic city. Interestingly, instead of opting for the usual candy floss entertainer in her directorial debut, Kiran chooses to make a film that’s very real and also that comes across as personal memoirs that have found a place on celluloid.

It’s more of a video diary on the inhabitants of this bustling metropolis. More importantly, this is a story about four different people – all from diverse walks of life – and how their lives crisscross in this voyage and how they cope with yearning, solitude, affection, friendship and loss.

To me, Mumbai comes across as the fifth character in this film. The constant clamor of traffic, the sea of people, the energetic street life and the heavy and torrential rains dominate the goings-on from start to end. In fact, Mumbai comes across as a silent spectator here, watching each of those four characters mutely. Much like a septuagenarian [Aamir Khan’s neighbor] in the film.

Dhobi Ghat is the kind of film Indian Cinema could have afforded a while ago. But thanks to the power to make and push out films to the multitude being in the hands primarily of people WHO FIRST THINK BUSINESS and then art, we’ve not had this kind of film yet.

In an era where 95% of film making is PURE BUSINESS, someone decides to take a risk with a career spanning 20 years by pushing out a film which may not work for everyone. I respect this man: Aamir Khan. He has given us a terrific performance as Arun

Prateik however outdoes Khan. Aamir somewhere has been a part of much more dramatic cinema and so his acting has that touch of high drama even when he is succeeding at playing it subtle, whereas Pratiek is naturally subtle and that is so so so endearing. Where Aamir has a face which we have grown to love so much that we are already rooting for the character purely on the basis of it being Aamir’s face, Prateik becomes the character. And we have no mental image of him. So it works better.

What is most upsetting is that critics are panning the film. The same guys who’re giving TRASH like Yamla Pagla Diwana 3 stars are trashing this SENSITIVE PIECE OF ART.

I’ve watched the film twice in 2 days.

I love the MAHAUL of the film’s characters. I Love the characters, I love the outplay of the plot and the visuals and soundtrack of the film.

If you turned a corner and saw the Taj Mahal it would hit you like a ton of bricks. It’s beauty, its magnificence, its grandeur. But if I built it up with all its stories and then you went fully prepared and expecting it you just might not be that impressed.

Aamir Khan in that sense has the kind of expectation level as one might have from the Taj Mahal. You are expecting to be hit by a ton of bricks like Taare Zameen Par or Lagaan. in this case you might be disappointed. It is a very un-Aamir Khan like film. Very subtle, very toned down drama, but deep, and real.

Go watch it expecting to LIKE it, not LOVE it and you may end up LOVING IT like I did.