Dhobi Ghat *****Reviews and Spoilers*****

[Sanyogita]

I bought the DVD yesterday and I've been watching the bonus feature on it. After seeing the making of- I have to say that Kiran seems like the most adorable filmmaker ever.

 I cannot wait for more films from her- but I wonder how they will be sustainable. The Indian public pretty much rejected Dhobi Ghat outright, so I doubt they are going to take to her sensibilities anytime soon. I hope that she continues to make niche movies like this one and finds an alternative method to make them finically viable- a limited release in countries that have art house cinemas maybe? This is exactly the kind of film that Fox Searchlight would/ should pick up.

[Darshana]

Yes - I think the same - she is great and I want to see more movies from her.

The thing is exactly how to get the western audience a little more interested.   I forget, what international festivals was it in , does anybody know?  I don't know if it was in any NYC Indian festivals, or at Toronto.

[prahajess]

I am hoping that the fact that she wrote Dhobi Ghat -- and didn't just direct it-- means that we can expect more like it from Kiran Rao. I am probably setting myself up for disappointment here, but I hope hope hope!

^^I don't know about festivals, but it *did* get a write-up in Elle magazine. If I weren't already interested in BW, that article was positive enough to have made me put in on my Netflix queue....

[pahar ka gulab]

Well, given the givens, she will probably go on making her movies. DG may have not been the hit, but it was financially profitable for it's producer, so I guess he will go on producing her work if he likes what she writes.   And I guess chances are good that he will!

As to festival screenings: the ones I know for sure are, TIFF Toronto in 2010, London Film Festival 2010, Stuttgart Bollywood and Beyond 2011

[NewLaura]

Well, given the givens, she will probably go on making her movies. DG may have not been the hit, but it was financially profitable for it's producer, so I guess he will go on producing her work if he likes what she writes.   And I guess chances are good that he will!

As to festival screenings: the ones I know for sure are, TIFF Toronto in 2010, London Film Festival 2010, Stuttgart Bollywood and Beyond 2011

That's the key and important to remember, I think.  Aamir is always very careful with the budgets of the films he produces.  And it's still on Netflix Instant View, so that expands the possible audience in the US tremendously.

It was also shown at the Maximum India festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC in March 2011.

[Simran_Singh]

I cannot wait for more films from her- but I wonder how they will be sustainable. The Indian public pretty much rejected Dhobi Ghat outright, so I doubt they are going to take to her sensibilities anytime soon. I hope that she continues to make niche movies like this one and finds an alternative method to make them finically viable- a limited release in countries that have art house cinemas maybe? This is exactly the kind of film that Fox Searchlight would/ should pick up.

It may not have broken box-office records, but because it cost so little to make, it did (AFAIK) turn a small profit, causing Filmfare magazine to declare it a Hit (IIRC)

It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in the fall of 2010 and received a rousing response from a full-house, almost entirely South Asian audience.

This is exactly the kind of film that with better marketing and placement, I think could have done reasonably well among the not-necessarily-South-Asian "art house" crowd.

[Parallel_Worlds]

This is quite an interesting movie! I watched it twice, cause I felt there were so many things still to discover the second time.

Some things are never explained and is left to you own imagination. This is what I liked most about the movie.

Like why did Yasmin commit suicide?
I felt it wasn't only because of her husbands infidelity, but because of the loneliness she felt in the city.
She had no relatives or friends living there, her neighbor was in a vegetable state, and her husband hardly spoke to her when at home.
The only relationship she had was with the camera.
Coming from a small town and loving family, and knowing this was her life from now on, must have driven  her to suicide.

And why was Shai so obsessed with Arun? It became clear in the movie that Arun is very sense oriented (like the way he touched Yasmin's fish object and then incorporated the texture in the painting). During the love making scene it's shown that he was very intense as well. He explored Shai's toe ring as if he was worshiping it. For a city girl with her share of relationships this must have been quite a revelation, as if she didn't know this kind of intensity was possible. Hence the obsession with him. For him it was just something he was fascinated with for a moment and then moves on to something new.

[Dariya]

Wow, reading the forum on this movie is making me feel so guilty for having disliked it! The memories of very specific things I hated -- Aamir's stare-at-the-floor style of "acting", the awkward/irritating English dialogues with Shai, the long, drawn out shots -- are still vivid in my mind.  However, after reading the incredibly insightful discussions amongst you guys I feel that I didn't give it enough credit.  Then again, maybe I'm only capable of seeing the "worth" of Dhobi Ghat through the eyes of those of you who loved it and understood it better than I did.  Hm.  I will reserve judgement until I can watch it again.  I wasn't intending to but now I want to look for all the little things and sweeping themes that you folks have mentioned on here.  Even if I still don't like it, there's always Prateik! 

[Sonny]

Interesting to read that a lot of people don't like the english conversations between Arun and Shai. I found them very naturally reagarding the fact that Shai usually lives and works in America, talks with her father in english and has obviously problems with her Hindi as seen in her conversations with Munna where she often seeks for the right words or hesitates on a lot of words.

[pahar ka gulab]

I was wondering about the same. Many people are critical about the awkward way Arun talks English. But I found that to be totally true to character. There are mostly two occasions we see him talk with Shai, first on the opening night and then the morning after. I felt his portrayal of an artist that is not hat home in verbal expression much very believable. I've come across several artists like that in my life and I've recently watched a documentary about the German Painter Gerhard Richter that shows him at a big press conference and an opening at some NY gallery and Aamir could have copied his body language and mimics 1:1. It feels painfully awkward because people like that ARE awkward when confronted with this kind of "interested" public. And their mode of expressing their emotions and instincts is painting, not talking.
The second scene that's awkward to the point of being painful is the "morning after" scene between Arun and Shai. And again I found this awkward tension to be very real to life (actually more familiar than I was keen to remember in some ways, .... ). And again it's meant to feel awkward to everybody involved.
As to Aamir's English dialogue delivery otherwise, I can only say it sounds to me exactly how Aamir himself speaks English in real life. And I don't see how his English accent as a partly English educated Indian living in India is in any way wrong for the character of Arun. I don't get it.

[Dariya]

It wasn't the characters or their use of English -- which was completely logical given their NRI/cosmopolitan lifestyles -- that annoyed me.  It was the performances of the actors giving the lines.  The actress playing Shai was mostly okay, but I noticed her enunciating her words a little too much in some of the English dialogues, like maybe she did have an accent but was trying very hard to sound American.  And I have never thought that Aamir was good at emoting -- I like him in lighthearted, comedic roles and I think he did really well in Earth, but in films like Taare Zameen Par, 3 Idiots and DG I just find his acting abilities lacking when it comes to being sad/serious/concerned.  I could see that he had probably watched some introverted artists while preparing for the role and was trying to behave like them, but I didn't buy it -- neither in his dialogue deliveries nor in his expressions and body language.

[pahar ka gulab]

There you have it. We can only agree to disagree on that point. For me Aamir excels most in the silent emoting scenes. They work the best for me. To me he has a sensitive intensity that doesn't need gestures and dialogue. I just feel it. And that's quite unlike any other BW star.  But since this magic doesn't work for you there's really not much to be done about it, ...

[Sonny]

There you have it. We can only agree to disagree on that point. For me Aamir excels most in the silent emoting scenes. They work the best for me. To me he has a sensitive intensity that doesn't need gestures and dialogue. I just feel it. And that's quite unlike any other BW star.  But since this magic doesn't work for you there's really not much to be done about it, ...

Agreed. Totally. 

[Darshana]

Thinking about this, having just watched DG for the 3rd time - I liked Aamir in it - I experienced him as: really an artist; a man who is both lonely and aware that by nature he is a loner - so he's lonely, he suffers it, and also conducts his life in the way he has to because he does need to be alone a lot; also someone who is aware of the feelings of other people, and regrets his own bad effect when he has one, as in their night and morning together.   

[prahajess]

There you have it. We can only agree to disagree on that point. For me Aamir excels most in the silent emoting scenes. They work the best for me. To me he has a sensitive intensity that doesn't need gestures and dialogue. I just feel it. And that's quite unlike any other BW star.  But since this magic doesn't work for you there's really not much to be done about it, ...

I'm totally with you. The magic works for me.  

And Darshana, I like your comments about Aamir's character. That's just what I got from him as well.