Dhobi Ghat (Mumbai Diaries): movie review
Mumbai is a city of 14 million people and writer-director Kiran Rao focuses on four of them. 鈥淒hobi Ghat鈥� (鈥淢umbai Diaries鈥�) is an odd amalgam of soap opera and street-level realism, with, alas, the former trumping the latter.
One plot strand, semidisposable, involves an amateur videographer (Kriti Malhotra). The bulk of the 鈥渄iaries鈥� are about Shai (Monica Dogra), an attractive Indian investment banker in America who returns on her sabbatical to Mumbai and falls into a one-night stand with acclaimed painter Arun (Aamir Khan, one of Bollywood鈥檚 biggest stars). The tryst leaves her breathless and him bored.
By contrast, Munna (Prateik), a handsome washerman, or dhobi, falls hard for Shai, who, inexplicably, regards him only as a friend even though he seems more her type in every way. We鈥檙e supposed to believe that their class differences provide an uncrossable gap, but the frustration of this film is that nobody ever tries to bridge it. Grade: C (Unrated.)
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