Saturday, 26 February 2011
Friday, 4 February 2011
Dhobi Ghat: A Review
I have never posted a movie review on this blog, but this is a special movie which deserves a special mention.
It is not a thriller, not a romantic movie, not a comedy, doesn't have a protagonist or antagonist, doesn't really begin or have a clear ending.It is what you can label as a good editorial column expressing the insights of the bored and the helpless but the aware mind, the musings of an artist on canvas when he paints without trying to convey his feelings but to soak in them himself, a research project which is not done to justify some funding but because true knowledge is about dispassionately observing something and getting to realize that knowing that you don't know is much more liberating than knowing that you know.I personally call it a window movie, which shows a small portion of the characters' life where they happen to touch each other in explicit/implicit ways.
Shai the hot shot alpha female. Banker, researcher, pretty, sultry, photographer , confused and caught up in the mess of being independent or accepting her femininity, she has got it all. Heavily attracted to a guy who is completely into her(feminine), but not being able to call a one night stand what it stood for(confused) and unable to understand the rejection from a seemingly wonderful person after a wonderful few hours of passion she chases him like a blood hound to unearth the man behind him, a combination of the typical female instinct of solving mysteries and a typical male egoistic thought block of "how could he??".........today's woman.
Yasmin belongs to the times gone by, to a set of people who are accidentally born in today's age.The quintessential girl next door, who is happy with the flavor of "being" and kills herself because the sense of being has no synonyms without the concept of a happy home.My heart went out for her.
It is not a thriller, not a romantic movie, not a comedy, doesn't have a protagonist or antagonist, doesn't really begin or have a clear ending.It is what you can label as a good editorial column expressing the insights of the bored and the helpless but the aware mind, the musings of an artist on canvas when he paints without trying to convey his feelings but to soak in them himself, a research project which is not done to justify some funding but because true knowledge is about dispassionately observing something and getting to realize that knowing that you don't know is much more liberating than knowing that you know.I personally call it a window movie, which shows a small portion of the characters' life where they happen to touch each other in explicit/implicit ways.
As a first thought it reminded me of some of the best Chinese movies that I have seen till date like crouching tiger hidden dragon. Very east, very subjective , very cyclical.
Anyway the movie was basically about unspoken moments and forgotten ghosts and how they mean the smallest speck and yet our entire emotional constitution.When Shai looks around, she sees people treating Munna like a menial worker, someone who is served chai in a tumbler rather than a cup, someone who has to lie about his profession when he goes on dates, so much that even the narrator himself hides one of his main jobs which is rat killing during nights so that viewers don't judge him instantly. She treats him as an equal and lives in the acknowledgement of his crush on her and understands that it's a delicate friendship hanging between unrequited feelings and momentary friendly warmth. One of my favorite scenes was when Munna sees Shai and Arun together and walks out without uttering a word, Shai runs down immediately to say hello."People who care for you are more important than people you care for."She looks at mumbai like an observer hence treats munna as her eyes, to reach to the soul of the city, but sadly doesn't realize that this benevolent treatment towards him is what is hurting him the most. He is confused between her being nice or just being plainly kind towards him(which men hate).When she discovers her real profession by chance , he runs away, like an unspoken storm had just passed by, like saying, " it's over bbye......when even i don't like this side of me, how could i let you see me like this. And i don't need your pity for chrissake." But he grows up to realize that it feels great to make people you care for happy, no matter how, no matter why.He runs back to give arun's address to her in one of the final scenes.Munna without donning the garb of the stereotypical modern indian male was a wonderful representation of one.Fighting, ugly, confident, sensitive, hypocrite but most importantly "accepting".
Shai the hot shot alpha female. Banker, researcher, pretty, sultry, photographer , confused and caught up in the mess of being independent or accepting her femininity, she has got it all. Heavily attracted to a guy who is completely into her(feminine), but not being able to call a one night stand what it stood for(confused) and unable to understand the rejection from a seemingly wonderful person after a wonderful few hours of passion she chases him like a blood hound to unearth the man behind him, a combination of the typical female instinct of solving mysteries and a typical male egoistic thought block of "how could he??".........today's woman.
Yasmin belongs to the times gone by, to a set of people who are accidentally born in today's age.The quintessential girl next door, who is happy with the flavor of "being" and kills herself because the sense of being has no synonyms without the concept of a happy home.My heart went out for her.
Arun on the other hand makes the fifth character "the city of mumbai" come alive from an interactive perspective. He moves from place to place, corner to corner, forgetting the regrets, untying the cobwebs, running away from the past, seeking pleasure in momentary escapism but forever living with the weight of a heavy conscience which proclaims that he is innocent but that itself is the hardest thing to accept.
He moves from place to place seeking peace, loneliness, but only from the surroundings, not from the people who make him feel alive, like his dhobi or his manager.He doesn't dig today's alpha female but a virtual person on the TV whom he can turn off at will, basically someone he doesn't have to demand his space from.But even this true loner, who doesn't want the burden of having close relationships, gets deeply deeply hurt from the knowledge of what happened to yasmin and moves away from that house eventually.
We work hard, we move places, we hope, we forget it all to rejoice and move on but the stark reality(represented in the form of a city) refuses to go away. This movie is a true dedication to all your shattered dreams, unfulfilled hopes, peace that is never found, mysteries that are never solved, crushes that live on to hurt, memories that live on to haunt and all of these interspersed with a few moments of "human goodness".And all that survives are a few photographs, a video cassette, memories of a wonderful night or a painting that you love to hate.
My first reaction after I finished watching the movie was, "Finally, here is a movie which will forever be loved by bibliophiles and people who care for the unspoken words."
He moves from place to place seeking peace, loneliness, but only from the surroundings, not from the people who make him feel alive, like his dhobi or his manager.He doesn't dig today's alpha female but a virtual person on the TV whom he can turn off at will, basically someone he doesn't have to demand his space from.But even this true loner, who doesn't want the burden of having close relationships, gets deeply deeply hurt from the knowledge of what happened to yasmin and moves away from that house eventually.
We work hard, we move places, we hope, we forget it all to rejoice and move on but the stark reality(represented in the form of a city) refuses to go away. This movie is a true dedication to all your shattered dreams, unfulfilled hopes, peace that is never found, mysteries that are never solved, crushes that live on to hurt, memories that live on to haunt and all of these interspersed with a few moments of "human goodness".And all that survives are a few photographs, a video cassette, memories of a wonderful night or a painting that you love to hate.
My first reaction after I finished watching the movie was, "Finally, here is a movie which will forever be loved by bibliophiles and people who care for the unspoken words."
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
