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Dhobi Ghat starring Aamir Khan : Bollywood Movie Review

January 26th 2011 17:57

Photos of Dhobi Ghat, Mumbai

Kiran Rao's Dhobi Ghat is the latest release from Aamir Khan Productions and castes Aamir Khan himself in the role of Mumbai based painter Arun.
Story of Dhobi Ghat

Dhobi Ghat is the story of three very different individuals hailing from three diverse backgrounds but held together by a strange sense loneliness.
Meet the characters:
Arun (Aamir Khan) is a Mumbai based up-market painter and allegedly a divorced father of one. However, there is no indication that he has any contacts with them. He presents himself as a loner (and tries to prove to himself that he enjoys living on his own) but in reality he is desperately lonely and strangely finds solace in a series of handy cam videos shot by an enigmatic, untraceable and equally lonely woman called Yasmin (Kriti Malhotra) who had once lived in the same apartment as Arun.

Shai (Monica Dogra) is an American banker with Indian roots who has come to Mumbai for a change of air and more importantly to get a taste of the inimitable Mumbai life. She is charmed in equal measure by both the glamorous and the ugly side of Mumbai a fact which is reflected by her affections with both Arun and her dhobi, Munna

Munna (Prateik Babbar) is the link between Shai and Arun and is head over heels in love with Shai and predictably jealous of Arun. However, cannot transcend the social gulf between Shai and himself and at the same time find it hard accept that Arun is more deserving of Shai than himself. To complicate matters for him there is a dark a side to Munna's life and his brother (who shares his roof with him) is a low profile gangster and drug peddler where as Munna works the night shift as a worker who is responsible for killing rats and vermin in the city and is very ashamed of his job.

In the end Dhobi Ghat is a story about all the things that you so wanted to be and could not be sweet things that could have happened, little mistakes that you could have avoided, horrible mistakes that you could do nothing about and in the end finding solace in the haunting thought that the rain and the sea will wash all these blemishes away.

Prateik Babbar and Monica Dogra in Dhobi Ghat

My Verdict on Dhobi Ghat
Dhobi Ghat is not only an unique Bollywood production but a fresh approach even at the world stage. It is a brave effort where there is no solid story line but just a collage of images from everyday Mumbai held together by the narrative of a small time UP girl taped for her brother with the intension of giving him a taste of Mumbai not to mention the spellbinding background score by two time Oscar winner Argentinian musician Gustavo Santaolalla (Brokeback Mountain, Babel, Motorcycle Diaries). In the end Kiran Rao's Dhobi Ghat is not a movie. It is a subtle poem written on celluloid. A poem that revolves around our everyday disappointments.