Dhobi Ghat (Mumbai Diaries)

Some films are so evocative of place that it is possible to smell the rain as it hits the pavement, taste the air blowing off the ocean, and sense the buzz of humanity on the streets even when music supplants background noise. Dhobi Ghat (2010), helmed by first-time director Kiran Rao is one such film. Mumbai (Bombay) is shown to be moody, subtle, overwhelming, treacherous, squalid, and gorgeous, and the film is at its best when the focus of the film is not the characters, but the city itself, which functions as the humming background note in a vibrant ensemble of characters: Munna (Prateik Babbar), Shi (Monica Dogra), Yasmin (Kriti Malhotra), Arun (Aamir Khan), and Mumbai.

"My muse, my whore, my beloved" says Aarun of the city. 

Shi is an Indian-American banker on sabbatical from NYC pursuing her passion for photography. Arun is a brooding painter, Yasmin a lonely bride, and Muna, the unlikely heart of the film, is a dhobi (laundry man) who dreams of becoming a film star like Salman Khan. The lives of these four Mumbaikers bump up against one another over the course of the film, with surprisingly lasting impact.

Munna and Shi

Of the cast, only Khan is a star. Babbar's subtle performance as Munna, and Malhotra's tremendous screen presence as the fragile Yasmin suggest Rao has an eye for talent, a talent for directing new actors, or both. A lesser actor than the capable Khan might have played Arun as a melodramatic, "angry young man"; instead, Arun is broody, damaged, and entirely self-contained. Dogra's Shi is not especially likable, but I am never sure if I dont like her because she seems not-quite-real or so real that I actually dislike her as a person. Either way, her stalking of Arun is believable- Khan's Arun is exactly the kind of man a woman artistically inclined and inclined towards artists might stalk a little bit. Shi claims she is following and photographing him for the sake of "unfinished business," and neglects to specify what that business might be. However, the way Shi's camera lense pans Arun's body invites the audience to make inferences, and I am struck by the fact that Kiran Rao was an assistant producer on Lagaan long before she married Aamir.  

Arun's painting

There are many cameras in Dhobi Ghat. Shri's black-and-white photographs tell one story of the city, Yasmin's video letters to her brother another, and Arun's paintings yet another. These various eyes bring the viewer closer to daily life (lives) in the city, particularly with very narrow-angle shots and close-ups on bangles, hands, cloth, canvas. Rao's directoral lens shows us the connections between the stories, but the other lenses remind the viewer that Mumbai is a city of millions of lives, textures, hands, faces, tragedies; the city ultimately remains a mystery, even to the director.

In this film, Mumbai (most of the characters prefer Bombay, a choice nostalgic, political, or both) is shown to be both like and unlike any and every other city in the world. The rich and the poor live separate lives packed together like a shoal of fish in a too-small tank. In the crowd, the denizens are alone. Lives brush up against one another without every touching; connections are misunderstood, ignored, rejected, chased, dreamed up, and some are ultimately impossible. Maybe even most, although the film ends on a note of quiet hope. Maybe- and this is a big maybe- some dreams can come true in the city of big lights and big promises.   

Most reviewers wrote that Dhobi Ghat has the sensibility of a European art house film. I disagree. Although fluent in the visual language of the international film festival circuit and fundamentally cosmopolitan, Dhobi Ghat is an Indian art house film. There are enough beautiful Indian art house films making enough of a splash that the industry speaks for itself, without the aid of neo-colonial comparisons. If you are interested in reading additional reviews, however, the Hollywood Reporter's review is beautiful.

The DVD I received from Netflix also included some wonderful special features, the very best being that which recounts the collaboration between Rao, Khan, and composer and musician Gustavo Santaolalla of Brokeback Mountain (2005) and The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) fame. It is a mini-exploration of the creative process and the role of atmosphere in art. Santaolalla and Rao have managed to add local depth and global breadth to the city through the music of this film, and gaining some sense of how and why was fascinating.

In a final note, for readers interested in more Bollywood gossip than is available in the special features, I recommend Mumbai Fables: A History of an Enchanted City, by Gyan Prakash. I read it first in a course about urban South Asia, but it is not an academic book- it reads like a really long issue of People magazine crossed with a true crime novel, and joyfully rakes around in the muck. Its fantastic.

Film: Dhobi Ghat (2010)
Director: Kiran Rao
Writers: Kiran Rao, Anil Mehta
Runtime: 95 Minutes
Country: India
Language: Hindi, English

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