TORONTO, (Reuters Life!) – Western film fans who thought they knew Indian city Mumbai after seeing “Slumdog Millionaire” can forget that, and Indian moviegoers expecting a Bollywood spectacle should be prepared. “Dhobi Ghat” is no musical.
Instead, the directorial debut of Kiran Rao paints a picture of a city with many layers and people in a 95-minute drama that feels more like a western-style movie that a typical Bollywood formula of song, dance and romance.
“Slumdog Millionaire” was the Oscar-winning film about a poor Indian boy who finds love and money on a TV game show, and for it, director Danny Boyle created a fast-paced thriller.
Rao, the wife of Indian superstar Aamir Khan, explores the burgeoning city of Mumbai through complex relationships of its disparate residents in “Dhobi Ghat,” (“Mumbai Diaries”) which opened in India and parts of the United States on Friday and is expected to play around the world in coming weeks and months. It had its world premiere at September’s Toronto International Film Festival and also played at the London Film Festival.
“I wanted to make a film about the different cities that exist within one city. And that especially happens in Mumbai where the city has so many layers,” Rao told Reuters by phone from Mumbai.
The movie intertwines the lives of four, very different people. Arun (Aamir Khan) is a successful artist whose fame has led to a life as an emotional recluse, and Yasmin (Kriti Malhotra) is a shy newlywed about whom Arun becomes obsessed when he sees her in videos he finds in his new apartment. Munna (Prateik Babbar) is a poor, working dhobi (laundry) boy and nighttime rat killer, as well as an aspiring actor, and Shai (Monica Dogra) is a U.S. banker on sabbatical in Mumbai.
COMPLEX CITY
Rao said she wanted the four main characters to be from different classes and backgrounds and different languages because Mumbai is a complex city with so many people and sections that its residents must co-exist, unlike smaller Indian cities where caste systems are firmly entrenched.
She was inspired by the outdoor laundry, Dhobi Ghat, in her adopted hometown of Mumbai, where dhobi’s wash the clothes of the rich, middle class and poor in rows of concrete pens.
