Dhobi Ghat Movie Review: Ghar Ke Na Ghat Ke
Kiran Rao’s Dhobi Ghat is the story of four Bombay characters who, while facing personal demons, end up crossing paths and, in the process, changed forever. Combined with some magical moments, Dhobi Ghat might move the viewer to some extent, but overall the film feels like a very fabricated exercise with a slight touch of simulation.
Dhobi Ghat Plot
Shai (Monica Dogra), a New York-based investment banker on some sort of sabbatical, meets reclusive artist Arun (Aamir Khan) and they hit it off like a house on fire. Shai thinks the chemistry is good enough to explore further, but Arun is a different man in daylight. Shia decides to focus on the vacation assignment of photographing people with strange vocations, and befriends Munna (Prateik), a local washerman who dreams of becoming an actor. As Munna shows her the sights of the city, she clicks on his folder. They end up spending most of their time together, but she can’t seem to get Arun out of her mind. Arun moves into a new house and gets lost in the life of the previous tenant, Yasmin (Kirti Malhotra), through the three videotapes he finds in the house. Shia locates Arun through Munna, who turns out to be the common link between the two, and begins surreptitiously photographing him. As Arun plunges into Yasmin’s life going from bad to worse, Munna begins to fall for Shia, who still has a crush on Arun, but will the four of them get what they want?
The four characters the film follows are sad people seeking their place in the sun through companionship, love, or even a decent job, but on closer inspection, they don’t seem so sad. The scenes where Arun explains to Shia that he’s a loner, not the morning after relationship types and later when he meets her again and tries to come clean, hardly show him as what he says be. Rather, Arun seems to be happy that he hit it off with someone and wants to be with her more than anything, but for some strange reason he decides not to tell her! Is this the little crack in him where he can break out of the loneliness that has practically become his calling card? Is this the small window of hope in the midst of despair? If that’s not the case, let’s just say that Dhobi Ghat is built in such a way that it will do its best to make you feel sad because later it will want to sign off on a positive note.
Kiran Rao’s Dhobi Ghat follows the same path as most of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s films such as Babel, 21 grams or Amores perro. The whole thing about three or four characters whose lives collide and alter the course of their own existence has been done to death and Rao’s film has a huge Iñárritu hangover. So much so that he even gets the Mexican author’s usual Argentine composer, Gustavo Santaolalla, to do the background score. Having said that his characters are unique, his stories are interesting enough to follow, but Dhobi Ghat tries to be something different than what he ends up being.
Boring moments at Dhobi Ghat
Frank Capra once said that drama is when the audience cries and not the actors, but Dhobi Ghat puts too much responsibility on the sadness of its actors and after a while you just want to ask what all the fuss is about. Out of the lot, it is Prateik who manages to impress you the most. His Munna is nuanced enough to make you believe what a horrible life he leads and you can almost breathe the very dreams he harbors. Prateik’s presence is striking but never overwhelming. Any actor who can convincingly manage to be quite on screen and yet not look out of place is a joy to watch and Prateik manages to do just that in most of his scenes. The two that stand out are the ones where he says that he was always hungry in his village and that’s why he came to Mumbai and the one where he notices Arun’s shirt in Shia’s house. Dogra, on the other hand, is well-cast, but swings between passable and boring for most of the movie. Malhotra is mostly alone for most of her screen time and keeps it real, but the outcome of her story is largely predictable, which makes her seem structured at times.
Final words on Dhobi Ghat
Most of the characters follow the rehearsed line, but Arun sticks out like a sore thumb. Unlike most of his films, Khan gets a chance to be alone at Dhobi Ghat and tries to downplay Arun as much as possible, but somewhere he doesn’t seem to be convinced of the character. The desolation he struggles to absorb is like that of Marlon Brando in Last Tango in Paris, but unlike Brando Khan, he’s constantly looking for directions, something you just don’t associate with an actor like him. In the scene where Shia storms out and Munna walks into Khan, for a moment, it’s so bad that you’re convinced they inserted the wrong take!
Dhobi Ghat’s ode to Mumbai and its people is very palpable, but sometimes seems out of place and even pretentious. How else do you explain Arun asking Shai something like, ‘Do you often come to Mohammed Ali Street?’ It’s like showing two characters next to India Gate and saying something like “I’d like to meet you at India Gate” just to convince the viewer of “reality”. I see what I see for you to show me… this is exactly the grouse against Dhobi Ghat, it looks like a movie made to show you the sadness that may not be as bad as the characters think.
Dhobi Ghat Cast: Prateik, Monica Dogra, Kriti Malhotra and Aamir Khan
Dhobi Ghat Written and Directed by: Kiran Rao
Dhobi Ghat BUZZ RATING: 2/5
Dhobi Ghat Genre: Drama
Dhobi Ghat Producer(s): Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao