I love watching movies. I watch across the length and breadth of genres. Satyajit Ray is my favourite film maker. When he passed away I was in tears. I felt I lost someone so close to my heart. It was 23rd April 1992, I was 15. Even if I were 25 or 35 or 65 years old, I would have felt the same loss, simply because I was in love with his movie making, story telling, camera work, casting and music. I can watch them again and again and still they will have a story to tell , a frame to be re discovered.
I loved 3 idiots too. Laughed and laughed till the end. One thing I know for sure is that, there is nothing like commercial and art movie, there is only good movie, mediocre and bad. Dhobi Ghat is somewhere in the middle lower bracket. (2/5)
I went for the 9:30pm show in Jakarta, to watch this much awaited movie, I liked the trailer a lot. Sadly, I simply came back with a headache, literally due to the jarring camera work of some scenes that were so crucial for the movie (or that's what the director thought)...but hardly made me think of a second watch. A straight line story, twisted and turned to form an abstract art, made up people, nothing close to reality. Nothing touches the heart, soul or even the eyes. Pretentious every bit of it. Amir khan never looked so out of place and uncomfortable in any movie (except for 1 scene where he looks up at the ceiling in despair). Shai and Munna, no idea what they had in mind or heart. Why Agnes said some made up lines, why the bored housewife spilled some unnecessary comments, why Kitu Gidwani's charm was wasted, why the smoking, why the bai and her daughter was shown in such light, why all the fake NRI angle.
A debut ante film maker, trying too hard to please her audience, but unsure of the ingredients needed, so she tries it all. Mumbai captured in cliched downpour, ganpati visarjan, slums, railway tracks and hint of underworld. The only thing I related to as a ex Mumbaikar, were the houses, the shoddy 1BK , the decent 1BHK to the upper class 3BHKs and the roadside pav bhaji, anytime of the day.
Kiran Rao, maam with all due respect,you definitely had a story to tell, a camera that captured still life (or some good photographer who took those shots)...and a nice simple ending with few and minor glimpses of brilliant work speckled here and there. But that's about it. I just wished that the simple climax could have been the inspiration for the entire film. This simple nice story about entangled relations could have been shot in some other way, against the backdrop of my favourite city Mumbai. In way that that I could have fallen in love with the city and its people all over again.The soul was missing.
As for casting, Prateik is definitely good (Munna) and I would love to see more of him, Monica (shai) too did a good job. Loved the tiny bit of Kitu Gidwani.
I can watch Pother Panchali many times and also for that matter, 3 Idiots. If I wanted pain and reality to hit me on the face, I will watch life as it pass by, why spend some quality time, huddled in a super cold movie hall, and watch some made up characters, trying so hard to emulate life with all their intellectual prowess and fail. I am sure this movie will be highly acclaimed and win accolades in film festivals (c. Emperor's New Clothes). But dont know how many heart or mind it will really touch. Or how many will go back to the theatres to see it again. I won't.
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