...of Unspoken Emotions

Of late I have become a serious follower of Aamir khan. I don’t intentionally miss any of his movies. I watched the latest in the list – Dhobi Ghat. Directed by his wife and enacted by him. Aamir has said, the movie doesn’t carry any message. Yes it doesn’t. It carries emotions – silently.
Had Aamir not been in this movie, it would have been so easily got unnoticed. One should be aware that Aamir is not the hero or the lead in this movie. It takes guts for a figure like Aamir to accept and enact such an insignificant role and still make a significant impact. After the first look, as soon as the movie got over, my first thought was ‘Thank god this is not the usual two and half hour movie…’ And then when I thought about it after some time I realized the essence of the movie. Every scene has something to say. I feel, now, that this is a well directed and well crafted movie.
There are 4 main characters in this movie – Arun, Munna, Shaay and Yasmin. Arun and Yasmin have a relationship in the form of a video tape. Arun, the artist watches Yasmin on a video tape and likes her so much that he goes on to have her in his painting which he completes at the fag end of the movie. (Hats off to that real artist who has originally painted that master piece) Yasmin’s emotions are pictured in a camcorder and she unveils her mind to her brother in the form of explaining the city of Mumbai by actually shooting with a camcorder. The way she gets back from a woman in the Mumbai local to the way she shots the Ganesh processions silently speaks a lot about her mind and her emotions. We should notice that her excitement slows down gradually from the first scene to the last. The camcorder tapes silently speak a lot about her loneliness as well. In fact, when Arun realizes after looking at the last frame of the tape, that his perception of Yasmin’s life was exactly opposite of what she herself felt like, he bursts into tears. In the whole movie Arun looks like a strong man, but at the end he breaks down and that speaks a lot about his emotions, again in silence.
Arun, speaks (again speaks thorough silence) about his feelings after a one-night-stand with Shaay. He tries to console her. But, Shaay being an American doesn’t care and behaves as if it is very common to her. And she even gets annoyed by Arun’s consoling efforts and goes off. She then meets Munna. Munna turns out to be the common Dhobi for Arun and Shaay. The movie silently showcases his aspirations. The scene where he lends some money to his brother, being a poor man himself, and the scene where he exercises after a hectic day to keep his body toned, silently speaks a lot about his character and his willingness to succeed in life. What I liked is that the movie doesn’t depict the agonies of the poor man, but depicts the aspirations of a poor man in the midst of his agonies. Shaay is an American banker who would have come to India on a short visit. She gets acquainted with Munna and agrees to shoot for a portfolio of him and he in turn agrees to let her shoot his day as a Dhobi. In the process, he starts liking her. He even tries to kiss her in a scene and refrains from it. This scene speaks in silence about his character. He then comes to the words of another lady who tells him that Shaay would ditch him. At the same time he loses his brother as well. He stays away from Shaay and even runs away upon seeing her. These scenes silently depict his weakness. At the end, after sending a message that he doesn’t want Shaay to meet Arun again, he still runs and gives the address of Arun to Shaay. This scene silently talks about his care towards Shaay and Shaay understands this, tears roll down her eyes.
In the whole movie there is one character that always remains silent - an old lady always sitting. She keeps silent just watching whatever happens in front of her. She never reacts. Just watches. I guess that lady symbolizes Mumbai. Mumbai stays silent looking at everything around – the good and the bad.

The movie is full of unspoken emotions.