8/7/2019 10 Films Worth Waiting For 2011

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Film: Dhobi Ghaat

Stars: 6/10: Technically chic, but jarred storytelling muddies the canvas

Kiran Rao may have got her technicals brilliantly right with her cinematography

and editing but Dhobi Ghaat falters for the same reason that many such slice ofbig city life intertwined character stories fail the stories dont quite neatly

weave into each other. Aamir Khan is Arun, the painter who has a chance

meeting with Shie (Monica Dogra)an NRI investment banker on a sabbatical.

Incidentally they happen to share a one night stand and also the dhobi (Pratiek

Babbar as Munna, the washerman is easily the brightest spot among otherwise

staid performances). After a fallout with SHie the morning after. Arun finds his

latest muse in the abandoned home video tapes of the housewife who used to

live in the house where hes just moved in while Munna develops feelings for

Shie. All along you are treated to some exquisite photography in highlighting the

less known facets of Mumbai as a city. Munnas odd jobs as a dhobi and even a

rat killer while harbouring dreams of making it big in the movies captures the

zeitgeist of Mumbai well and credit should go to Pratiek for that. However Aamir

stands out as the films biggest and most unfortunate liability, his English pretty

awkward and his acting well below the benchmarks he himself has set. The story

ends without a feeling of closure, something you suspected from the beginning

when the film opens with the shaky handycam shots of Ruksanas diaries. The

whole effort mirrors the incoherence of the opening scene and you are saved

from enduring extreme drudgery by the stunning visuals. The scene where

Munna runs in between traffic chasing Shies car is brilliantly crafted as is the

sequence of photographs taken by Shie across Mumbai. But any filmmaker

deciding to throw themselves at the canvas called Mumbai always bear the risk

of losing the plot in myriad mysteries of the city. A similar fate befalls Dhobi Ghat

primarily because Kiran Raos ambition only shines through in the visuals and

the technical department but the story telling has nothing new nor noteworthy to

offer.

Disney for a brief while seemed to have lost its magic touch of breathing new life

into classic tales but with Tangled it looks like they are back at doing what they

do best make you laugh, smile and even cry without missing a beat. So, you

have the story of long haired Rapunzel locked in her tower by Gothel, the woman

she believes is her mother. But little does the princess know that her hair hasextraordinary powers and the woman has kept her in the tower after kidnapping

her as kid. Rapunzel longs to be out there in the world and when her chance

arrives via Flynn, a thief who seeks refuge in her tower she embraces it bracing

herself for adventure. The rest of journey is trademark Disney fun filled stuff but

with a new found spunk that is brought out well by Mandy Moore (Rapunzel) and

Zachary Levi (Flynn). The humor is spot on drawing in children and adults alike,

and the supporting cast of Maximus (the horse) and Pascal (the chameleon). The

animation work is superb (the 3D version is totally worth it) as seen in the acting

just the facial expressions of Maximus and Pascal do (the two characters have no

lines in the film). Tangled is a triumph of good old Disney family storytellingwith a bit of fun and adventure for everyone.