incomplete..

not everything in life needs to have a beginning, a middle and an end. in reality, there is always a story before the actual story. and a story after it. what any writer or script writer or director or musician tries - is to tell us what happened in the interim. between one page and the next, one scene and the next, one note and the next. if i were to tell you the story of my life, i may begin by tellin you where i was born. but the truth is the real story was set in motion when my parents were born, or their parents or in fact, the real story would have started millions and millions of years back. my story would then be just a piece cut out from the fabric of time. and this is what dhobhi ghat was to me. it did not begin coz there was a story even before the characters came to life on screen. and neither did it end with the last scene. coz the characters continue to live even after the movie ends. it was just a slice of life. of four different people - bound together by the fifth and the strongest element of the movie - mumbai.

the name of the movie should give one an idea about what it has to offer. coz doesn't it blatantly say "(mumbai diaries)" right in its name? and a diary it is. there were stellar performances and even lack lustre scenes. most characters seemed intensely real. each character a study in itself and worthy of review. and even when Arun couldn't quite pull it off, i thought it was the actor and not the character itself that was to blame. each character evoked memories of people i know and emotions i have felt. i went for the movie with friends who bemoaned the lack of story, the lack of a purpose behind the story even. but to me the purpose was the story telling itself. and i loved the story, incomplete, as it might seem. so would i have preferred to know if Shai did get to meet Arun again and maybe realize her infatuation with him? would it be better knowing if Munna did become a famous actor or not? would it be better if i knew whether Yasmin did kill herself or if she survived the attempt to end her woes? well, if you were to ask me, i would rather not know any of this. for it is not always that one knows all answers. i dont know what became of people i knew, things i had treasured. i dont know the motives that drive people to act the way they do or the result of their actions. for the most part i live on in spite of not knowing. and that is what life is. like someone rightly said - 'maybe life does not give one all the answers. maybe life itself is the answer'. i'm not much o a film critic , but i know i like a movie when i come out o the theater thinkin - 'i want to go right back and watch it all over again'.

disclaimer : love for the movie may be also be induced by love for the city. didn't help that i went with this hard core mumbaikaar whose face definitely lit up when Arun says - "to my muse, to my whore, to my beloved". and this one was definitely for mumbai!!