Aamir Khan, Prateik Babba, Kriti Malhotra, Monica Dogra and Kiran Rao attend a press conference in Toronto. (Picture by Mahesh Abeyewardene)
Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan in Dhobi Ghat at TIFF
Toronto International Film festival celebrated its 35th year in its own home when Bell Light Box opened its doors on September 12. The new slogan says, “Films have given a home for the TIFF.”
Cameron Bailey, who selects films for the festival from South Asia, says this year he focused more on films which highlight human rights abuse and culture clash.
Bollywood superstar, actor and producer Aamir Khan had the world premier of his latest production Dhobi Ghat (Mumbai Diaries) at the Elgin Winter Garden Theatre. Khan was given a warm and overwhelming welcome by his fans in Toronto who jumped across live lanes of traffic on Yonge Street to greet him. It added more glamour to his visit as his wife, Kiran Rao, producer, director and screenplay writer, and other cast members accompanied the actor at the premier.
Together, Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao have slowly slipped out of the formula-type and traditional frame of Bollywood cinema to capture a real-life story for the big screen. Kiran Rao was born in Bangalore, India, and earned a B.A, in economics from Bombay University before completing graduate studies in Mass Communication at Jamia Milla Islamic University in New Delhi.
Aamir Khan in a scene from Dhobi Ghat.
“She worked as an assistant director for the Oscar-nominated Lagaan (2001) as well as Monsoon Wedding (2001) Saaytha (2002) and Swades: We The People (2004). Dhobi Ghat (Mumbai Diaries) (2010) is her first feature film”, writes Cameron Bailey, TIFF Co-director, in his introduction of the director.
Aamir Khan’s popularity in Indian cinema had risen over the past two decades. I saw his acting for the first time when Indo-Canadian director Deepa Mehta’s ‘Earth 1947’ screened at the Royal Ontario Museum to raise funds for the United Way and ROM in September 1999. In ‘Earth 1947’ he acted as the ice-candy-man who sells his stuff at the public park and gets entangled in a triangular love affair.
In 2001 Aamir Khan was on the top of the ladder for his acting in Lagaan which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film category. In Dhobi Ghat he acts as Arun, an artist trying to forget his past as a married man with a child. Living by himself in a Mumbai low income flat trying to resurrect his life, piece by piece, he is haunted by his past.
Prateik Babba who plays the role of Zohaib.
At his art exhibition he meets Shai (Monica Dogra), a beautiful young woman who is visiting her family in Mumbai. He spends one night in her apartment and on the following day he regrets what happened in the previous night. Shai who works and lives in New York takes everything easy.
Zohaib is a good-looking young laundry man who is working for Arun and Shai. Friendship between Zohaib and Shai blooms when Shai follows him to his laundry district to capture photographs of him washing clothes. The sprawling laundry district and its workers are separated from the rest of Mumbai.
The workers are discriminated and treated unfairly because of the lowly nature of their occupation. Shai treats him as a friend and entertains him at her apartment.
When asked about his family Zohaib says, “I came to Mumbai when I was only eight years old and started to work in a hotel. In my home we didn’t have enough to eat. I decided to stay in the hotel because there was enough food to eat. When I grew up I moved to the laundry district and started my own work.”
Monica Dogra taking photographs in the Mumbai laundry district.
The intimacy between Zohaib and Shai grows so fast until the day Arun came in between them. Ultimately, Zohaib realizes that he has a limit to go on with his life with Shai. He discovers the needs of his adopted family and his obligations to them.
Kiran Rao uses the monsoon rain in Mumbai and its effects and sounds to create a different atmosphere to understand each others’ thoughts and their desires. Dhoby Ghat will be released theatrically in early Spring next year. Earlier Aamir Khan Productions had plans to release the film on December 24, 2010.
