Dhobi Ghaat

A must watch movie. It's definitely not an ordinary movie. You can call it a documentary. Whatever it is, I think everyone should watch it at least once. People exaggerated a lot about not understanding the movie. But in my opinion, there is nothing that can't be understood. It's a very simple movie. There is nothing to predict from what is happening. It is just observing each character, how its life is and what things happened in its life in one of its phases. If you go with expectation of climax, anticlimax and spice, then it’s a complete letdown for you. But if you want to see 100% reality, then this is the movie. You'll know a part of Mumbai here. Read the complete name of the movie before going. It is Dhobi Ghaat (Mumbai Diaries).

@People who haven't seen it, don't read ahead before watching the movie.

This movie is like reading few pages of a diary of a person who is constantly observing Mumbai's Dhobi Ghaat and people living around it. It's not only about the dhobi guys. It is also about the people because of whom dhobi guys get their bread and butter. And hence the name of the movie is.

Movie revolves around 4 characters - Arun a painter who is a divorcee but a successful artist (Aamir Khan), Munna who is a dhobi guy who left his home in Bihar at the age of 8 to get adequate food (Prateik Babbar), Shy (or Shai) who is a foreign-returned girl working for some investment related banking (Monica Dogra), Yasmin  who is a newly married innocent girl (Kirti Malhotra) and their stories. Their stories are not completely disjoint. They are related but not so straightforward.

Arun is kind of a loner for whom his art is the focus; nothing else. He is not a person who can commit to anyone. But he is very good by nature like an ascetic. Munna is like Prabaker from Shantaram. Mumbai's population has huge percentage of such people. There isn’t too much fascinating about this character. But the story around it is good. Shy is amazing. What amazed me of her is her openness. Her daring to befriend Munna, to roam around with him brings some strangeness. She is a complete foreigner by nature and culture. This openness of foreigners and still maintaining humanity has always amazed me. And Yasmin is a non-existent character. She is very innocent and helpless at the end which is upsetting but unfortunately the fact.

There is one more character who I can't forget is the neighbor of Arun who never speaks anything because she had been under some shock. If it was a spicy movie, she would have spoken up something after looking at Arun at the end. There also Aamir, Kiran didn’t miss to be realistic.

One of some other minute things that attracted me was Arun's house. The bulletin board, the huge painting board, colors around it, books; I loved it. I'm planning to buy a white board here in Pune. Along with that I'm going to have one or more shelves for books and such painting board in my house. So that even if I'm not good at drawing/painting, I'll have something to try my hand on, anytime I'll want. I'm going to learn it. Though this all appears childish, I believe our house shapes our mind.

The other thing is Shy's hobby of photography. It made me think of getting a good camera and use it to keep memories of people/places whom/which I'll meet.