The hottest topic doing rounds among the Hindi speaking and movie watching junta is "Dhobi Ghaat".
"Did you like it? What a trash", "Oh, you did not like it? I found it very touching" - I cant remember the last movie which polarized the audience to such an extent.
Its very tough to like a movie in which the director plays the least important part and the audience has the maximum work to do. It does not build the characters, it does not give the story enough circumstances to develop, it even does not give the actors enough lines to speak! As viewers we need to think and understand why someone behaves in the way s/he does. If Aamir keeps flinching every now and then and gives a very wry smile, we need to surmise that he is driven by angst. If the dhobi's client is jealous about him getting close to Shai, we should guess that her husband could not probably satisfy her and the dhobi is sleeping with her for money. If the investment banker in her sabbatical gets very emotionally connected to Aamir after a one-night-stand, you should think of it as a girl who probably never got any time to do it (but my my, isn't she an investment banker?That explains it!) and hence falls for the first guy, who despite behaving like a prick, manages to touch her emotional chords. Then comes the 'I-am-unhappy-with-my-marriage' female. She creates these random video diaries for her brother because she has nothing better to do and ultimately commits suicide before even posting them on the internet or wherever. Surely, this is realism in a cruel city like Mumbai, isn't it? I mean what are you living for, once you know you husband is straying?? If only the unhappy Indian women understood this simple solution!! And as if these depressing characters were not enough, we have a neighbor whose role is to sit on the chair and stare at the ceiling. Then the parents who come to meet their daughter once and are not concerned about the neighborhood she lives in. The brother of the dhobi who had underworld connections (don't all Mumbai slum dwellers have such connections? Surely they do!) and gets killed by a henchman. How did these people help in conveying whatever she though about?? Or did we go for an 'as-is' process mapping?? We could have as well stood by the window overlooking any slum in Mumbai and observed and understood Mumbai diaries better. Of course you cannot ask for explanations from her. She is too busy creating the next plot.
The only saving grace of this ill-conceived, ill-executed, but well - marketed film is the background score. It is very haunting and stays with you long after you leave the theater. To some extent, the dhobi guy too has depth in his character. Otherwise, it was not just Aamir who felt pained throughout the movie (and he did not even have a valid reason except for his self proclaimed, "I like pissing people off") , it was each and everyone of us for having wasted good money and time on something this amateurish.
As far as the media reviews are concerned, I m 99% sure they dont want to be the one who has not understood the movie. So like the stock markets "hoping for the last fool" the critics pretend to have understood what was never conveyed and pass on the risk to the unassuming audience, who largely are made to feel that they are not qualified enough to understand and comment about elitist cinema like this. The truth is, cinema is as non-elitist a medium as one could get. Everyone can surely understand it without the need for a guide.
