Let me first point out I love movies the capture the real India, films like Swades, Salaam Bombay, raju ban gaya gentleman not a huge fan of slumdog but films that show the country the films come from also the rural areas. I, to be honest the last movie I liked after 3 idiots was Udaan and Guzzarish.
Two movies which flopped at the box office, so by seeing promos to this movie which started a negative buzz about the movie labeling it as "boring" even before the movie came out I was acutely excited by the negative buzz.
To be honest when the Indian audience do not except certain types of movies I tend to like them because I love when Bollywood shows India, in my view you don't need flash money or big sets to make a good movie. Most movies work with a great story and script with solid performances and why not be excited about this movie? It shows lives of 4 people in Mumbai which is one city where dreams are made and where dreams are crushed. But this is not about a larger then life story of 4 people this is of 4 ordinary people living in Mumbai and how each of there lives change.
It could be a story about me or you. Problem that anyone living in Mumbai could have. So why I see the audience can not relate to these kind of movies I have no clue? But did I relate to this movie? Well yes and no.
Dhobi Ghat is a story about 4 people in mumbai, normal residents of this city, they all have very different background Arun(Aamir Khan) who is a painter a bit of a loner who is just moving into a new apartment with the movie moving along you will find out more about this character.
He meets Shai (Monica Dogra) at his art exhibition. Shai is not from Mumbai in-fact she is from America on a trip to mumbai. Both Arun and Shai have a one night stand. The next day Arun tell's shai he is a loner and not looking for a relationship. Shai does not mind this and they both path ways.
Munna (Prateik Babbar) Who is Arun's and Shai's Dhobi has his own story he wants to be an actor he and Shai get closer and closer as Shai takes a liking to Munna and eventually Munna starts liking Shai, but Shai shows in this movie that she still has something for Arun as we see many times her kind of stalking him by recording and taking pictures of Arun at his new house.
Arun mean-while has his own story as he is moving into his new apartment he finds tape recording of which the previous tenants have left behind. He starts watching them which introduce our 4th character Yasmin (Kriti Malhotra), she never meets the other 3 characters because what we see of her is through recorded tapes that Arun watches.
She has made a few tapes which she wants to send to her brother, she shows him Mumbai through the tapes she talks to her camera about what she is doing about her husband (basically Arun follows her life through the tapes she has recorded from). I won't give much away but it really is a film about 4 people in the city of mumbai. There is also a fifth character to the movie.Yes a fifth character! Which is Mumbai itself.
Mumbai plays the biggest role in this movie as it is about the backdrop and how life is lived in this city which is always amazing to see, for me it is more better then to see where we came from and our real country then some overseas location, wish film makers could get back to the routes and shoot in the city or a small town it really is amazing to watch.
Dhobi Ghat is not boring at ALL! People may find it boring if they live in Mumbai but to me it is amazing to watch these 4 stories of characters which you can feel for.everyday people which could be you or me. It is very interesting to see all of these stories and the way the all connect.
The story which got me wanting to watch more was Yasmin story which was recorded on CAM. The character really was sweet, with recordings on tape you kind of know the ending of this story I predicated myself, but you knew a big climax will come when the recording of the tapes finish and when Arun has watched all the tapes.
I won't blow it for you but more then Arun I was into her story the most and the way Arun is caught up in her life by these tape recordings is very well shown.
It was like Arun actually knew her.he actually cared for her.he might have also fallen for Yasmin. The character of Yasmin might have had a small role but the character was sweet and good to watch.
Kiran Rao as her first directed film does well she captures the real Mumbai and the direction is really well done, what lacks in this movie was the climax which just about almost ruined the whole movie for me. I was left confused and thinking "Is that all?"
The Climax is one where you are sitting there after the credits and you look around you and find everyone still sitting down scratching there heads thinking "did the movie just end"."What happens here.What about Arun. What about Munna what happens next" lots of question not given.
The audience might think they were cheated out there money. The scrip teases you and the climax was trying to be extra smart and it just falls flat on its face.
So is this an Aamir khan movie or is he a special appearance or a supporting role? Well I roughly timed it he actually has more screen time then anyone in this movie I felt I saw more of him then the other 3 characters(Not by much tho) but Aamir, Pratik and Monica all have about the same screen time.
So to say this is not an Aamir Khan movie is rubbish the movie is based on 4 stories no one is the main lead in this movie it is all stilted up equally with 4 stories to tell no one is the main actor in this, except Kriti Malhotra who plays Yasmin I feel which was only slightly shorter.
As performance goes everyone did well. Aamir khan as Arun did really well, not his best performance but natural to the core, everyone bashing him when he speaks English need to learn something he is from India in the movie he lives in Mumbai. How do you want his English to sound like he is from america?
NO! His English needs to be a bit mixed with Indian and he needs to sound like he is from Mumbai. Monica Dogra who plays Shai does well. Now she is from America so her English is an american accent do you get that people she is from america so her accent is american not Indian.
She played a good role, did not have much to do but be natural and she did really well. Kriti Malhotra who plays Yasmin does really well, I don't know if that is her real voice or did she dress up to look like a normal typical house wife like that but I loved her character really sweet character you along with Arun get into her life and feel for this sweet simple girl.
Prateik Babbar as Munna. We got a star here people wait we have a fine actor here, what a performance in my view, his tapori language is spot on, he is funny, he has the look his character was very interesting and he acted very well, totally got into the skin of Munna.
I hope he does not do what Vivek Oberoi did in his career who played the role of his lifetime in company with a tapori kind of role and blew it with all the hopeless movies he did after and now vanished.
Just like Vivek, Pratik has started his acting career by actually "Acting" in a movie and getting into the skin of the character what a debut.
Review continued in comment section...
