So, yet another Aamir Khan Production! Beyond Bollywood seems to be the underlying motive of this production. Nice. Better, if its driven by "Cinema as an art."
Dhobi Ghat fails to reach the mark of a memorable movie, at least, for me.
I don't know why, but when it comes to titles, I get too picky. For me, title is the reflection of the soul of the piece of art - be it a writing or a painting or a movie. I consider it as an integral part of the art and not an identifier or label. Dhobi Ghat, straight away, fails here.
Why Dhobi Ghat? And why only that? Why not another place in Mumbai? Just because a key character works there? Or a lady -NY returned, investment banker, jobless in the name of research- chooses that place for photos? And a series of monochrome photos would capture the soul of Mumbai? Why a feature film when all it needs a photo exhibition?
The concept was good, but the execution failed miserably. "What is being told" should come first before "How it is being told".
This analogy may not go with everybody. From my understanding, what I see is that the director attempted to narrate a story of four individuals connected in no way, but only through the city. As they start with each other, their lives start interlacing with that of others and in the end, the final picture formed is not that of those individuals and their relations, but that of Mumbai. This is all so similar to a wall hanging made with steel or wooden frame as base with threads / strings of different colours run across each other - sometimes underlying, sometimes overlapping - to form a picture / design that one could connect to. This looks simple, yet beautiful. But the real challenge is that the threads should be neither too tightly woven, nor too loosely. It got to be 100% good to be in the awe of it. It's a case where 1% bad dominates 99% good.
Dhobi Ghat failed on showcasing the streams of the dhobi and the banker, tightly enough. And any interaction of these two with the rest, look like forced upon acts.
Also, an off-beat movie, needn't necessarily be boring. 90 minutes seeming to be an eternity isn't the target to be achieved. Not at least, when the story line has the scope to be engrossing enough for naive audience too.
Moments after getting out of theater.. I was thinking, why isn't the story better?
There is a painter, who is looking to shift to a new flat in old Mumbai. He gets to see a flat which happens to be semi furnished. The broker promises to remove the mess, if he plans to shift. He does. One day, a dhobi knocks his door and is surprised to see the new tenant, who also happens to be his old client. Now that the old tenants are no longer here, he decides to take back the clothes (or whatever to do they do with them, in reality) but handovers a key - which was tied with a knot at the end of a dupatta he washed - to the painter. Least interested, painter puts aside the key and rushes to one of his exhibitions, where he meets with this NY investment banker, who eventually ends up in his bed that night. Morning after, with all his uneasiness and inability to handle the situation, he successfully shoos her away. Disappointed, yet, sure-footed banker gets to her business of research and sees an opportunity to explore Dhobi Ghat and it's finance, when she gets to know the same through Dhobi guy. Meanwhile, the painter chances upon video letters left out by old tenant, thanks to the key given by dhobi. Now, where did the couple disappear? How did the mystery unravel? Was it a crime related to Dhobi Ghat? Or was it sheer carelessness on part of old tenants? What did the banker find out about the financial lives of the Dhobi Ghat? How did the Dhobi Guy ended up there and was he ever able to get out of it, despite his strong ambitions? Along side, how did these three deal with their passions and love and life and get along in the city?
Oh wait... why this rambling? I neither plan to do a Kiran Rao, nor do I have an Aamir Khan next to me. Let me stop here.
Aamir has said in press that this is a movie for someone who can appreciate an art, instead of being entertained mindlessly! Well.. it is not so easy to impress, when it comes to those set of people, for they tend to think too much! :P
