More people live in large cities around the world than live in rural areas. Although these places are considered hostile to spirituality, it is just the opposite. Urban centers give us ample opportunities to practice empathy, kindness, and love while trying to restrain our bad habits and train our minds. Kiran Rao, the director and screenplay writer, takes us to Mumbai/Bombay in this enthralling film about four residents and their different quests. The director of photography, Tushar Kanti Ray, has done a marvelous job conveying the slums and the haunts of the wealthy. We see the way class continues to create an abyss between the rich and the poor.
Shai (Monica Dogra), an American-born Indian investment banker, arrives in Bombay for a sabbatical. She wants to take up her hobby of photography and catch a glimpse through her pictures of this financial and spiritual capital. At an art gallery, Shai meets Arun (Aamir Khan), a famous but socially awkward Hindu artist who uncharacteristically takes her to his place and has sex with her. In the morning, she leaves after hearing that he has no interest in any romantic relationships at this point in his life.
Next, Shai encounters Munna (Prateik), a handsome laundry boy from the slums who ruins a stained shirt of hers. When he tells her that his dream is to become a film actor, she volunteers to shoot the portfolio he needs. In exchange, Munna agrees to take her around the city as her guide. But at the same time, he is shocked when his criminal brother is killed.
In order to make ends meet, Munna secretly works late at night as a rat killer. With everything falling apart around him, he mistakes Shai's friendship for him as an overture of love. She is still taken with Arun who has moved to another apartment in the Muslim quarter of the city. When Arun finds a video diary left behind by Yasmin (Monica Dogra), he is swept away by her sad story as a Muslim bride betrayed by her husband. The confessional tapes were addressed to her brother.
Dhobi Ghat (Mumbai Diaries) reveals the many ways in which the city challenges us to use our creativity to understand what is happening in and around us. Through the video he discovers, Arun opens emotionally; through her photography, Shai finds a fulfillment not evident in her well-paying job; through her video diary, Yasmin is able to express the pain, humiliation, and disappointment she feels; and through his encounters, Munna discovers that sometimes love can bloom best in friendship. Mumbai with its mysteries, downpours, traffic jams, slums, and rat-infested streets provides the backdrop for the adventures of these four people. The city itself is a major character in the film.
