Monday, January 24, 2011

There is more of Dhobi Ghaat in the chase sequence in Don

Let me at the outset tell you that I entered the movie hall thinking this was going to be a bad film. If India's most versatile actor gave his wife a chance to tell her first cinematic story, you kind of think, probably this is why she married him in the first place.

When a movie like Dhobi Ghat comes in just after a sensational bonanza like Yamla Pagla Deewana, I am predisposed to think this is going to be a boring prelude to a good Indian dinner perhaps later. Someone does mention to me though that this is a 95 minute movie. Someone also tells me that an Argentinian Oscar award winning music director has dished out some amazing work apparently for this movie, but the movie has no songs. I am completely confused now. Is this a hindi movie? Because it doesn't look sound like one. So I am in some far off suburb to watch an oscar winning musician at work on a 95 minute movie that has no interval! But I calm down as I am also told that the movie is about Mumbai, its bylanes and its people.

But then I was wrong.  There was more Dhobi Ghaat in the Bachchan chase sequence in Don and more Mumbai in Lafange Parindey!

I must admit though that Walkeshwar and Mohammed Ali Road never looked so good but then i could have seen all of that on Tata Sky. The only thing that differentiates TLC and an Aamir movie, is Aamir Khan, and you make him a wimpy introvert who is a loser painter sitting in his house, a role best suited for Sameer Soni! Serves him right for marrying the director and not my sister!

When you have Aamir Khan, an actor of the calibre of Prateik Babbar, and the streets of Mumbai at your disposal and you come up with 'Dhobi Ghaat', it is as blasphemous as Ram Gopal Varma's Aag!

Prateik Babbar is very Smita Patil in his subtle potrayal! But he should be warned that if he continues this, it will only get him playing an activist in a Prakash Jha movie.

Monica Dogra, as Shai or whatever-her-name-was, plays an 'un-shy' investment banking consultant from NYC, who has sex with a boring, reclusive painter. Now I have to agree that even I would have sex with a boring reclusive Aamir khan, but then the next day I would make sure i dont rebound to my Dhobi. Especially if the Dhobi is also sleeping with every rich south bombay aunty.

Yasmeen is a well written character. But as she describes mumbai scene by scene, you kind of know she is going to die. Dont worry its not a spoiler! If you didn't guess that 5 minutes in, you are only qualified to watch Telugu movies.

The only character-actor I could relate to in the movie was the silent old lady in the chair who just kept gaping. That was exactly how I was when I was watching the movie

I am upset that I paid the same amount, as 'Page 3 People', 'Kiran Rao's friends' and 'the intelligentia', for a movie that clearly targets them. There should have been differential pricing. Something like, if you were carrying a sub-Prada accessory, you would be charged 50% of the ticket price.
Ideally, Kiran Rao should have made this movie and released an exotic boxette at the Kala Ghoda art festival. That way the intelligentia could have paid through their nose for it and watched it at the comfort of their homes.