Review of Dhobi Ghat (2010) by Ruth S — 23 Jan 2011

Kiran Rao's first venture as a director is a subtle painting of Mumbai in its own sense - made of many more colorful and monochrome pieces.

"Dhobi Ghat" or "Mumbai Diaries" doesn't really have a beginning or an end. It's more like the fragments of the lives of four people put together, with the different emotions and moods they pass through.

Arun (Aamir Khan) is an artist, a painter looking for a new home in Mumbai. Shai (Monica Dogra), an ex-pat banker based in America, chances upon his art show. Something sizzles, and they spend the night together. Only to part ways the morning after.

While Munna (Prateik Babbar), a young lad slugging it out as a dhobi in the by-lanes of Mumbai, meets Shai on one of his delivery runs, Arun finds a box of video cassettes and some mementos in his new house - made by Yasmin (Kriti Malhotra), a young woman who lived there before him.

Shai, who loves photography, bonds with Munna and wanders the city, capturing its sights in her camera. It is through her pictures and Yasmin's innocent video captures that we are shown a beautiful, underplayed side of Mumbai and the people that make it the city it is.

All of the actors pitch in natural, earthy portrayals of real people, lost in their own pursuits, joys and sorrows - and much more is spoken with expressions, than with words. The cinematography is brilliant, painting the events on the canvas of Mumbai's sprawling visuals, it's lights and it's dark hustling streets.

Definitely commendable, and worth a watch for that flavor of "real" film-making.