Dhobi Ghat (the mumbai diaries)

It's funny writing this review after my last post, considering how this movie, in my opinion, is 'beautiful' in every sense of the word. From perfect screen shots to the delicately crafted characters... it is a movie in so many layers that one watch may not suffice. 

Four people. Four dreams. One busy city. It is a story that unveils four very strong characters who have come to accept their present reality. And among the many colorured threads that hold the movie together, the one thread that stood out to me the most, was that of inspiration. Four bold stories of inspiration. A lonely married woman, who sees happiness in the simple things in life. Notices the power of the natural beauty that surrounds her and who comes to accept her fate, not bitterly, but by reaching out ... hoping that someday a loved one will receive her messages. An artist, quite maturely understanding of the world and its ways... who finds his muse in these preserved recorded messages. He discovers a hidden world that inspires him to throw light on it... and he tries to re create what he understands of it... 

A banker, back in town to work on a project that requires her to take photographs of small businesses... she meets the everyday man... a dhobi... who inspires her and befriends her... And he himself who desires to be an actor someday. Now that I'm attempting to re write what I saw in the movie, I realise how difficult it really is on my part to do so! There were so many intertwined stories... and I've only tried to bring out the one on inspiration. How four individuals, from completely different strata of society come to play such an important part in each others lives... how they unleash creativity and subtly encourage the other to really reach out in whichever form... how we may never realise it, but we are what we see around us! We are a combination of the people we've met, and the company we've kept. 

But then again, all four individuals knew their place... the entire movie was like a brief two hour entry into a diary of how the lives of these four people changed, and how then... they moved on... there was no specific happily ever after (as there always seems to be in the filmy reality) but instead there was an intense show of passion  ... and the movie, redolent with innocent human emotion, also show cased some beautiful aspects of the busy city of Mumbai. All in all... I believe this was a film that exhibited so many different forms of simplistic love and emotion... stories of inspiration .... that the viewer would see things in the same angle that he would reflect on his life. That is what makes this movie so beautiful... true art in true art forms. A painter. A photographer. An aspirant actor. And the recording of a simple woman, with simple human wants.