It has been barely half an hour since I watched "Dhobi Ghat" and yes,it blew my mind so damn hard that I just had to write this down.The movie in essence, is not a theatrical at all.For all I care , It could have been a poem with floating,resonating lyric or a photo slideshow with those still images,silently speaking out much much more than the cacophonic movie fare (Read Akshay Kumar movies) that we are treated to,these days.A sordid tale about a city one can't help falling in love with, Kiran Rao,the debutant director has sketched her characters with surreal expertise,each one of them defining Mumbai in their own way.
Prateik,The dhobi represents the fighter that Mumbai is, doing what it can to make ends meet and yet,never giving up on their dream-of making it big.The innocent pining and longing,with the shy shrugs and the almost sweet way with which he interacts with Monica Dogra's character is a high point of the movie.The other male protagonist,the perfectionist Aamir Khan , plays a loner painter in the movie and gets into the skin of his character with typically consummate ease.He is the Mumbai ,which is not sure of itself , who has loved and lost and carries on,looking for inspiration in a couple of video tapes that he chances by.
Monica Dogra as the hotshot American banker,out on a sabbatical,is the Mumbai that is trying to come to terms with it's own essence,through her photography and of course her love soirees. "Posh and elite but not at all distant from ground reality"-this trait of her's was something really impressive.And yes of course,she is very pretty :P.Kriti Malhotra plays the Muslim wife who wants to capture Mumbai through her video camera and ends up being a muse or a subject to Aamir Khan ,displays moments of true cinematic brilliance with her innocent eyes and almost unbelievable endearance.She is the Mumbai which is puzzled by it's own pace and instead of running with it like Monica or Prateik do,she choses to sit back and take the feeling in ,losing strength but not her innate sweetness.Easily my favourite character in the movie ,just because of my obsession with "CUTENESS".
Last but not the least,there are fleeting images of the old ,silent woman, who is the Mumbai that is dying and decaying , silently observing what goes on around her ,too powerless to say anything and yet ALIVE by all means.A fantastic movie for the purely artsy people.To me it felt like a breath of fresh cinema,like someone's silk dupatta blowing across my face.Though I agree,not everyone will like it.
