Dhobi Ghat (Mumbai Diaries)

We are at an art gallery in a painting exhibition. Appropriately low key. City is Mumbai. Kitu Gidwani is manager of the whole thing and announces artist decided to make an appearance and should say a few words. Artist Arun (Aamir Khan) is visibly reluctant presence facing the crowd or art-lovers whatever says in man-of-few-words fashion that it's a tribute to people from different states and raises a toast to Mumbai, "To my muse, my whore, my beloved…."

Kiran Rao's debut film also a tribute to this bustling city of millions where four characters randomly run into each others' lives and make an impact. Like us meeting people and our story meets their story, vice- versa and streams go on. At the same gallery amongst the attendant an American NRI on sabbatical Shai (easily find of the year, inspired casting) meets Arun. Art talk, smoke, alcohol mix well. Fingers touch, so does the bodies. But the night-after ends badly because of Arun being asshole finding it difficult to say simple words 'not looking for something serious'.

There is a dhobi guy Munna (Pratiek, natural brilliant) who Shai befriends. She from another world treats him well, equal, goes to street photography with him to Nagapada, Machali market etc which is of course local to him. This boy, a wannabe actor (Salmaan being his idol) falls for the girl of course in the course, but never crosses his boundaries. They belong to different worlds (for society different classes) he and she both knows. Their odd, tender love-story or story, unsullied, forms the core of the Dhobi Ghat for me. There is definite chemistry between them. But never spoken of. Captured in gestures. Stolen yearning glances. Half chances. Even obvious finale burst out is still with no words. There is a beautiful night scene shot in rain where Shai and Munna have a drink at her place, later she falls asleep, air is electric, boy is tempted, leans for a kiss, backs out at final moment, leaves.

Meanwhile on other thread Arun looking for inspiration changing homes stumbles into few video tapes, sort of video letters of a recently married and migrated girl previous tenant of the flat Arun is living. Her name is Yasmeen (Kirti) and tapes are addressed to her brother back in her home town describing city from her eyes. He is hooked, possessed by these tapes, like porn her manager taunts. We don't blame him. Scenes in these tapes are almost poetic. We literally see how innocence is crushed in this endless city which swallows, sees everything from great successes, glamour to horrors of the fate, people.

All the principal characters are kind of chasing other. Munna chasing Shai, Shai-Arun, Arun-Yasmeen and Yasmeen her dream in city (which is fifth character in the movie). We go after things most try to attract us, evade us. And it's city like this which can shelter such diverse characters with desires, caution secrets, waiting to be discovered, fulfilled, hurt.

Lensed on slick, clean canvas and dream background scored by Gustavo Santaolalla movie is shot guerrilla-style on location minimalist approach, low on budget, rich in content. In this character driven piece ninety six minutes no interval (finally nice to see some arts winning over commerce) eventually everyone will get some kind of closure or otherwise. Just like in real life. Their stories are scripted like in a diary, aptly titled Mumbai diaries told soulfully by its sensitive director. Lovely.

It's not perfect, but it's definitely worth viewing. One does not find such attempts in Bollywood very often. All the characters are fantastic, and so is Mumbai. :)

The plot could have been more tightly strung up, but what the heck.. for a debutant, it's amazing. It comes to it's best when no dialogues are being delivered, just the rolling camera. The movie has no 'message', no climax, it just flows with lives of the characters. Moral of the story : Life comes in full circles, like clothes at a dhobi ghat. The background score is quite experimental as well.

Do not go expecting the usual Bollywood routine. If that what you want, I'm sure there are plenty of options around.

First of all this movie will not appeal the regular Hindi movie audiences who would like to see a hero and a heroine and a romanticism growing with elements of beautiful songs and music. Sorry guys, this is not for you. It will appear tremendously boring for those (Most of the reviews will tell the story).

Just change the setting and location, this movie will become a Hollywood movie (Art Type). There is no hero or heroine in the movie. It is a tale of 4 people, their lifestyle, and Mumbai's rapidly disappearing living history. The idea of the movie is little ahead of the regular audiences.

If you are into Art Films, watch this and enjoy every bits and pieces. If you do not understand art, please never try to watch this movie.

Let me start by saying that if you were expecting Transformers, this movie is not for you. If instead, you find yourself in a quiet room with the patience to watch something intelligent, then this would be your cup of masala chai :) Anything I say about this movie will not be enough to praise its quality. I have to go back and watch it a couple more times, before I have anything insightful to say. But I must say something, because of the way in which this movie has touched me.

I had grown jaded over the past few years, looking at the quality of movies being released in Bollywood. I would start a movie only to find myself bored by the same age-old clichés. So my expectations weren't very high when I started this one. But by the end of it I was sitting up straight, with my hands in a praying pose, watching with the utmost concentration. I guess I see a little bit of myself in Arun and Shai. I also sometimes think about the people that we the privileged don't see in our daily lives. The builders who build skyscrapers, yet have no place to call home. The dhobis who clean other people's clothes, yet hardly have any themselves. Kiran Rao does an amazing job of taking all these elements and representing them in the form of video, photography, art and music. There are coincidences and small clichés, but they aren't as blatantly idiotic as in other movies.

There is poetry in this movie about the privileged, the loved, the lost and the city that is Mumbai. One of my favorite movies of all time. I'm definitely going to keep an eye out for Kiran Rao and Aamir Khan productions.

I'm not myself such a big fan of this kind of film, I don't plan on buying the Dhobi Ghat DVD, but I nevertheless give a 9/10 because the movie deserves it. There are writing and technical achievements that you can't take away from the film, even if it didn't appeal to you.

The first great achievement of this film is its screenplay, written by Kiran Rao. The danger for a mosaic movie is to have its story drift endlessly or split in too many branches. It's not the case in Dhobi Ghat, and on the contrary it keeps a strong core around which the various characters and stories revolve. What is this core? The city of Mumbai of course, the 5th character of the movie, as the director claims... but not only.

The English title of the movie, Mumbai Diaries, could also have been "Mumbai Visions". Yasmin makes video recordings of Mumbai as she discovers the city. Shai wants to photograph the real Mumbai. Munna creates another self through Shai's camera, to reach the filmi scene of Mumbai. Arun gets his inspiration by watching the city, or watching the city as seen by Yasmin. One scene I really appreciated is Shai unnoticed taking pictures of Arun watching Yasmin's recordings. So, instead of just having the characters wander in Mumbai, the core of the movie is the sights the city impresses on its inhabitants and our protagonists.

The next achievement of Dhobi Ghat is its direction: refined, subtle, it delivers sights of Mumbai in a very intimate way. It's completely appropriate for the screenplay (well, logical, since both story and shooting are from Kiran Rao), and probably helps us rapidly feel close to the characters. I particularly liked all the scenes recorded by Yasmin, featuring small everyday events, but yet really meaningful and emotional. But it's also a strong technical direction, as is enough to prove it that scene where Munna runs in the middle of Mumbai chaotic traffic. A real moment of cinema.

To finish, the third good point of the film is its cast. Aamir Khan is flawless, as usual, though in the rather unusual role for him of a loner (he's done that kind of roles before, but not very often). Kriti Malhotra is a particularly moving and very beautiful Yasmin, Prateik Babbar excels in the role of the shy Munna, and Monica Dogra plays very naturally the modern American-Indian Shai.

The only thing I liked less in Dhobi Ghat is its end, a bit too open to my taste. But that's very subjective and on the whole the film deserves praise for its coherence, its sensibility and its artistic direction. I would call it a must-see.

P.S: People who hated it must only be used to watching Masala stuff. Seriously, the movie can appeal to a large audience, it's not AT ALL an obscure art movie that could appeal only to a very small fringe of audience...