Dhobi Ghat

When you come out of the theatre, there are films that stay in your head for a long time. Ever since I saw Dhobi Ghat, I have been thinking of the film and added it to my favorites list. Yes, the film has flaws and certain issues, but which film doesn’t. And people do not like it, which is fine. Think of it: an average working-class person has two days off and is looking for something that can give him wholesome entertainment. He doesn’t want to get depressed. Take Guzaarish for example, it was not a bad film at all. It was perhaps one of the finest films last year, but the problem was not that the audience did not like it; the problem was that the audience did not watch it in the first place, thinking of the dull premise of the movie. They just didn’t come out and watch it. But I think entertainment is a very subjective thing. As a person, I like films with layered characters and something hidden. So, it is a subjective thing. I don’t look upon people who enjoyed Housefull or Golmaal 3; it is an individual’s choice. Perhaps that is why I could watch Saawariya, the grim story of perpetual longing and sacrifice. Kiran Rao said she wants to make movies only for a certain audience and is looking for more critical than commercial acclaim. She wants to tell a story that she wants the people to see and not a story that people will like to see. Perhaps that is why Aamir never promoted it much. The movie was made for just 5 crores and has recovered it already. The good thing is that there is now an audience for every kind of cinema, which is very positive for the industry.

Anyways, I am not writing a review, but some of the amazing things that I saw in Dhobi Ghat.
1. The films open beautifully with Mumbai in the Monsoons shown through Yasmin’s taxi ride. She says, "Aaye hue to sirf 5 mahine hue gaye phir bhi sab naya sa lagta hai," to the taxi driver who is also from her home state UP, and the song dil dhadak dhadak ke keh raha hai a bhi ja and while she is sitting in the taxi, some kids come for alms and start dancing as soon as they see her camera, just like that scene in the brilliant Luck By Chance when Zafar Khan meets some kids on the traffic signal.
2. Yasmin’s treasure box contains her video letters to her brother Iqbal and her precious things, such as her chain and surmachu. Her video letters were an absolute delight. There is this scene where she says, "Main kaisi lag rahi hun..pehle jaisn na ..abhi tak nahi badli hun." The gradual transition from a bubbly, innocent girl to a betrayed wife shows the irony of the statement. Her eyes reflect this change beautifully. Little did she realise how terribly her life would change.
3. Remember the final scene in Wake Up Sid, when Sid wears Ayesha’s kurta as his acceptance of his love for her. I think one of the most recurring themes of the movie was our desire to be connected. We human beings are essentially loners looking for somebody we can connect to. Just like Arun, who has no personal life and watches Yasmin’s videos as if it's porn, wears her necklace and ring, probably to get connected to her life..as if by wearing those, he would be able to connect to her even more or that taxi driver where he says to Yasmin that he is also from UP, or how Shai says that there was some different emotional connect with Arun, probably that is why she starts stalking him to finish some business. Another theme of the movie was the abruptness. Kiran essentially tries to show that life eventually moves on. She starts her movie in a taxi. She ends it in a car, and Arun initially shifts to a new place. He does the same at the end, and Munna shifts places and starts a new life..the city of Mumbai is ruthlessly indifferent, and there is no option but to just move on with our lives..just like that old lady living next door to Arun. 
4. The scene where Yasin captures her maid and her daughter is so natural, and her daughter sings The Brook by Alfred Lord Tennyson, perhaps one of the movie's most poignant scenes. I came and googled the poem.. the poem is probably a reference to the city of Mumbai.

I come from haunts of coot and hern,

I make a sudden sally

And sparkle out among the fern,

To bicker down a valley.

By thirty hills I hurry down,

Or slip between the ridges,

By twenty thorpes, a little town,

And half a hundred bridges.

Till last by Philip's farm I flow

To join the brimming river,

For men may come and men may go,

But I go on forever.

5. When it is raining, Yasmin says “Yeh bearish na ek dum lohri ki tarah hai jo sabko apni god me sula deti hai...and then she adds lekin meri bai kehti hai use bahut dikkat hoti hai..pani ko nikalne me.. baar baar ek mug se nikalna padta hai”...and when Arun is having a drink, he puts his glass in the rain to add some drops of rain in it to get a taste of rain.. I am sure all rain lovers would have loved this scene.

6. That old lady who is Arun’s neighbor doesn’t say anything in the entire film but says a lot through her eyes. There is so much pathos in her eyes. She is the silent spectator, just like Mumbai, the film’s fifth character.
7. My favorite character was Yasmin.. the way she looked at the bangles in a shop, Elephanta caves, she captured Ganesha Chaturthi..she was a pure delight..the way she wrote her name in the sand before waves kept coming, the way she says, "Yeh samundar apni gehrai me sab kuch chuupa leta hai."
8. I believe the movie's star was Mumbai, and Kiran Rao says that Mumbai is her fifth character. The way she, along with the cinematographer, has captured the essence of Mumbai is sheer magic. I was in Mumbai when I was just one year old, which I have no recollection of. For the last 2-3 months, there is this craving in me to go to Mumbai..the city of dreams..the city of indifference.. the city with so many layers.. That shot when Munna is putting a waterproofing sheet on his slum during the rain with 2 local trains passing by...such magic that shot.. or when Arun walks to sea after he realizes that Yasmin committed suicide..what picturesque beauty..or that scene in which Aamir is walking with thousands of people in the bazaar..what amazing shot.. and when Shai says she wants to capture Munna naturally..not in studios as these look artificial..the way she captures that fisherwoman, Munna in Dhobi Ghaat, local trains. I have fallen in love with the black-and-white mode. I want a camera just like her.. such terrific shots of the city..
9. The class difference that has become so entrenched in our society... like that scene when Shai’s maid serves tea differently.. a glass for Munna and a fancy mug for Shai clearly shows our hypocrisy as a society..we talk of a class-less society. But ask our maids to sit on the floor and serve them tea in glasses, befitting them.. and how Munna eventually realizes that Shai and he are totally different people living in two different worlds.
10. The old-world music sung by Begum Akhtar and Siddeshwari Devi reflects the somber mood of the characters.
11. The brilliant portrait of Yasmin at the end reflects her journey from a colorful life to her ultimate tragedy.
12. The way Munna keeps his money in the tape recorder..terrific camerawork in that scene..
13. The profession of night rat killers

14. Munna's final act of giving Arun's address to Shai..super acting in the climax by both Prateik Babbar and Monica Dogra
The only thing I did not like much was Aamir Khan's performance as Arun. He seemed to be trying too hard, hamming, and overacting. 
There were so many other scenes, I will surely watch it again just to understand the finer nuances of the film..I read a fantastic review that said that Arun's character could be seen in the way he sees Yasmin's videos..he could stop them and start them on his will..but he could not do the same for real people; that is why it made him uncomfortable. Such layers are in all characters. It was sheer poetry in motion that slowly grows on you. It is a perfect tribute to the city of Mumbai and, as Arun says—To my muse, my whore, my beloved.