Dhobi Ghat - a thought

Dhobi Ghat

A film so true about being a Mumbaikar. With its sensibilities in the right place, it intelligently differs the Mumbai that you see from the Mumbai that you know.

Showing the city where you don't really see the lines when at ground level. Aspirations may differ, but it is a city where impossible is nothing. Relentlessly intertwined lives where one is never feeling bad with being a part of someone else's life. The most unforgiving yet beautiful emotion of being a Mumbaikar, the existence of him as a voyeur.

Kiran Rao intelligently takes a standpoint on mumbai as a voyeur and fearlessly binoculars her view onto a city with a million faces, to show us the bit of city that exists between each of us and how each one is constantly looking into another.

A voyeur out of sympathy to the lives of those assumed to be one down. A voyeur out of curiosity, only because the crowd in the city is too large for anyone to know. A voyeur out of choice, out of a desire to be, because frivolity can be afforded..

Having said that, one thing definitely not required here were the smaller narratives of the city, the struggle, the festivity, the slum, the multi-functional railway tracks, the high-brow malabar hill housewife or the big v/s small city disparity. These remain unnecessary and probably the distraction that irritates the viewer to make this a less-than-perfect watch. But what turns out even more severely damaging is the films' inability to end the narratives at their critical threshold. Instead it goes on to justify itself, be it Arun's house shift, Zohaib-Shia's much not needed confessions or the ceiling fan after the suicide declaration.

That pulls the grip of an untold from your mind, the reason for an audience to be satisfied with the watch, the urge of being left with a question, a thought to linger upon.

One sadly ends up leaving the hall not knowing really what to conclude of what seems like an half-baked attempt at showcasing a Mumbai diary... When it is actually the most intelligent take on the city witnessed so far.