The Dhobi Ghat is an acquired taste. Either the film will sink into your skin like a slow ache or it will be bewildering and downright boring. Kiran
Rao’s first film is an atmospheric mood piece. There is no overt plot –
four lives randomly connect in Mumbai. There are fleeting moments of
happiness and pain and the eventual realization that the journey never
ends. The struggle to survive and to connect is eternal.The characters
are Shai, played by Monica Dogra, an NRI investment banker who is back
in Mumbai for, she says, a change of pace. Arun, played by Aamir Khan,
an angst-ridden artist who has a one-night stand with Shai but has
little affection or time for her the next morning. Munna, played by
Prateik, a dhobi with dreams of becoming an actor. And Yasmin, a young
married Muslim girl, played by Kriti Malhotra, who makes video diaries
that Arun discovers.These people intersect in the disparate spaces of
the city – posh art galleries and narrow gullies in slums; the dhobi ghat
and high-rises. Munna and Shai make a connection but can something too
fraught and tenuous to even be called a friendship, transcend class
difference?The fifth character in the film is Mumbai, a teeming city of
migrants that remains unknowable, alienating, harshly beautiful and
brutally indifferent. Kiran Rao and cinematographer Tushar Kanti Ray
construct a rich and intimate portrait of the city. In places, the
locations almost overshadow the characters – there is a terrific shot of
Arun walking down the bustling Mohammed Ali Road during Ramzan. In
another scene, Munna covers his shanty from the torrential rain as local
trains whiz by. Rao also observes human behavior keenly – so when Shai
first asks Munna to sit down in her up-market apartment, he hesitantly
feels the sofa before placing himself down. And when Shai’s disapproving
maid serves them tea, she brings one nice cup and one glass that befits
Munna’s status.Prateik is achingly lovely as Munna but the star of the
film is the luminous Kriti Malhotra who revealingly loses the hope and
shine in her eyes.This saga of love and longing is punctuated by a
haunting background score created by Oscar-winning composer Gustavo
Santaolalla.What doesn’t work as well is the pacing. Rao’s build-up of
characters is painfully slow with the first 30 minutes or so being the
most problematic. Some of the early scenes are clumsy and the disjointed
narrative just isn’t engaging enough. I was also confused by the
suggestion that Munna is having a relationship with an older woman
customer – so does the dhobi routinely offer more than just clean
clothes? Intriguingly, Aamir Khan, otherwise such a fine actor, strikes a
false note.
With constantly furrowed brows, he seems to be performing at a different
pitch from everyone else. You can almost feel the weight of being in an
art house film on his shoulders – the early scenes with him and Monica
are particularly awkward.Still, if you are willing to have patience, Dhobi Ghat comes together nicely. It has a poetry and melancholy that stays with you. I recommend that you give it a shot.
