[There are spoilers, be careful]
"Look, Yin Mulang, this is Haibin Avenue, and in front of it is Jiaoberti Beach. Every day many people come here to play, to eat fried noodles, steamed buns, and snacks, but I think everyone is here to breathe fresh air, because the city is very busy. Lack. The sea breeze smells very special, and it smells people's desires." - "The Laundryman by the River"
As a producer, Aamir Khan can be said to be an anomaly in the Indian film industry. Unlike Indian films, which are generally lively, bright, and the plot is rushing forward and the idea is unrestrained, most of the films he produces present a plot. The delicacy on the top and the delicacy in the details, so that there is a sense of hesitating to speak. And this literary film "The Laundryman by the River" reflects these characteristics.
When I first paid attention to this film, in addition to Aamir Khan being a label, I was also curious about the labels "artistic film", "shorter length" and "no song and dance". I can't imagine an Indian film stretched for more than two hours without singing and dancing. With this in mind, I watched this movie. I'm not used to watching literary films, but I didn't understand it the first time, but only when I watched it the second time did I get a taste of it.
The Laundryman by the River, also known as The Bombay Diary. Personally, I feel that the second name actually sums up the film better. It tells the intricate story of four people - a laundry worker, a rich family daughter, a painter, and a video girl - by chance encounter. And these stories happened in the city of Mumbai.
One, four kinds of people
The film focuses on four characters: Muna, the laundry worker, lives in a humble squatter house, but has dreams of being a movie actor. A wealthy girl, Shayi, came to India on vacation from the United States. She loves photography and plans to photograph the life of Mumbai people. Painter An Run gets new inspiration by constantly moving. His career is starting but he is not good at communicating with people. There is also a girl in the video, who moved from her hometown to Mumbai with her husband after marriage, from the excitement of the new life to the final despair.
Muna: The gap between the rich and the poor in India is very large, so big that when the rich second generation like Shay drinks coffee every day and sees the street scene and there are maids around, families like Muna can only struggle with food and clothing, so He came to Mumbai when he was eight years old and started living with his uncle, doing odd jobs for a living. He used to work in a restaurant and was beaten to death by the boss for stealing food. Later, he became a laundry worker, and at the same time worked part-time as a rat hunter at night. In other words, it is his official job to fight rats, and the laundry worker is a part-time job (Mumbai's rat infestation is so serious that the government specially hires people to fight rats, and there is a certain target every month), so Shay is proposing to shoot him. At work, he was stunned, and Shay said "laundryman," and he readily agreed. He didn't want others to see his dirty and smelly job, and he didn't want his unrequited Shay to see it. He is also unwilling to face his unrequited Shay, who is actually just using himself, he is such a simple person. At the same time, he is still such a person with dreams. He hopes to become a film actor and yearns for that kind of glamorous life. Therefore, he does not understand that Shay is shooting the street scenes of Mumbai. Perhaps, he is one of the thousands of grassroots representatives in Mumbai, living in a slum that leaks in rainy days, and may be involved in the strife of street power at any time, for a dream, or just to survive.
Shay: Shay is a rich lady who also loves art. The friends around her are so vulgar that they can think of sex when she talks to them about An Run. They also can't understand their street photography of Mumbai. For them, it is just a leisure and entertainment activity, no different from drinking, clubbing or even taking drugs. However, on the other hand, Shay is also quite a European-style person, from her English much more standard than that of the local Indians to her indifference to An Run's romantic affair and her slightly ambiguous relationship with her friend Pehi. It can be seen (Indian folks are still quite traditional, which can be seen from the fact that Muna's buddies joked about their marriage when they saw the topless photo that Shay took of him). Shay is very curious about Mumbai, but she has no plans to integrate into this society. She came to India just for vacation and research, which may reflect the attitude of Indian returnees.
An Run: An Run is a painter who lives alone. Unlike Muna and Shay, he may represent everyone or himself. He has such a powerful and rich inner world, but the door of his heart is tightly closed, and can only be opened when he picks up a paintbrush or is catalyzed by alcohol. He is also a little high-minded and doesn't like to pay attention to money-related matters. His agent is talking to him about the painting market, and he is just folding a boat with napkins. Only when the agent mentioned holding an art exhibition in Sydney, his The eyes were only measured because Sydney had his ex-wife and his son. Maybe this kind of arrogance is not a kind of arrogance, but more a kind of ignorance of the world - if you don't understand it, you don't want to pay attention to it. His ex-wife may have divorced him because of this, of course, there are other possibilities. What he was looking for was so simple that it was just a feeling, but it was so complicated that he could not tell what that feeling was. He could find it under the brush, and what prompted him to find it was a housewife, who now only Survived on three tapes.
Video Girl: The girl, Yasmin Noor, happily moved to the city with her husband, filming everywhere so she could send it to her younger brother back home. However, as a housewife, she can only regard her husband as the center of her life. However, in the three videotapes, there is almost no trace of his husband, only the housemaid and the maid's fat daughter. At the same time, she is not very used to life in Mumbai. She is curious about the fast-paced cooking of curry and the fast life of the opposite family. She is ridiculed for taking pictures on the bus. The good life is washed away by the waves of time like words on the beach. There are only memories, memories of mangoes in her hometown, memories of childhood fun, and in the end, even these memories can't support her life, and she is powerless to face the future. It is implied in the play that Yasmin eventually hanged himself, but this was handled as An Run's imagination. Did the girl eventually die? Or went somewhere else? No one can be sure, only three videotapes were left, describing her Yujian thoughts, leaning against the railing alone, and putting them in a box, where they were discovered by the next tenant, An Run. It is worth mentioning that there is also an old lady in the film who lives next to Yasmin and An Run. She sits at the door or in the room without a smile every day, with sad eyes. She is more like a symbolic symbol. Or the externalization of Yasmin, giving people endless aftertastes.
Two, three exchanges
Shay and Anrun: In the play, there are not many scenes of Shay and Anrun communicating directly, only the one night caused by the art exhibition and later Shay "accidentally" met Anrun and was invited to go home for a cup of coffee. Shay has an artistic resonance with An Run, but more of an obsession. She is unable to talk to her friends about composition, light, and understanding of art, but finds solace in Anrun. But for An Run, it was an occasional release under the catalysis of alcohol, and he was not like that at all in his usual life. How high is Anrun's requirements for life, so high that he will not let any woman easily enter his world, just to pursue that kind of feeling, what he may have once, but completely lost due to divorce, spiritual and spiritual. The high coordination of the soul and the happiness of the heart (it must be said that An Run's body is somewhat of a shadow of the experience of the actor Aamir Khan, or this role is at least subconsciously tailor-made for Amir by the screenwriter Kiran Rao ). So in the early morning of the next day, An Run can only awkwardly apologize to Sha Yi, even apologizing when they meet for the second time. Sha Yi didn't take this matter to heart, but she didn't know if she noticed that her communication with An Run in daily life was not so smooth, it was just like two acquaintances (neither of them could be regarded as acquaintances) Talk politely. Of course they couldn't do it again with a drink, that feeling could only exist in Shae's memory in the end, like a dream.
Shay and Muna: Shay is a bank investment advisor on vacation, and Muna is a laundry worker struggling to make ends meet. The two met by chance because of a bad laundry. They both seem to be a little curious about each other's world. —Shay likes to shoot Mumbai street scenes, while Muna wants to enter high society. However, they are somewhat disdainful of the world they live in. This conflict is reflected in the film, which is the dispute between the two people about the location of the photo shoot - Shay hopes to take some natural photos on the street, while Mu Na wants to go to the studio to take some star-like photos; Shay thinks going to the studio is pretentious, she wants her photos to "show a fresh style", and Muna thinks the "fresh" scenery of the street is not good to take. Yes, because this is what he faces every day. Later, Moona seems to fall in love with Shay a little bit, and this unrequited love may be because Shay's kindness to him has triggered his wishful feelings. Because of poverty, it seems that no girl has ever taken a fancy to Muna, although he is not bad. Shay also asked stupidly: "You are so handsome, why don't you have a (girlfriend)?" For the sake of face, Muna could only say a little embarrassedly: "I...I don't like it." How could Shay understand Muna What about the lives of such poor people? She could only use her own life experience to ask Muna, who left her hometown and came to Mumbai at the age of eight, "Why don't you go home and have a look?" "Don't you miss home?" "Are you unhappy at home?" Muna asked Unable to answer. The class divide makes them insurmountable, even in communication. Later, Muna seemed to understand that Shay's friendliness was actually a bit of an exploit. She just wanted to find a guide and take him to every corner of Mumbai. And in the joking and taunting of his buddies, he realizes that he simply cannot go beyond class to pursue her. When he realized this, he chose to escape. Shay took a picture of him fighting mice at night, he ran quickly, and when he met Shay for the second time, he chose to flee quickly, but this time he was caught up by Shay. Shai chatted with him and asked him what was wrong, "Aren't we friends?" He sneered. Maybe Shay really considers him a friend, but they just don't understand friends the same way. He was also jealous of An Run. When Shay asked An Run's whereabouts, he said that he might go to Sydney to get back with his ex-wife. In the end, he caught up with Shay's car, told her Anrun's address, and walked away wordlessly. And Shay finally understood that Muna's love for her was too deep to express, but the car drove away, she could only hold the address that Muna gave her and cry silently.
Anrun and the videotape girl: Anrun moved into a new home, and when he was packing, he found an old iron box with a small mirror in it, a necklace with a ring on it, and a small fish ornament (I don't know what it was either). what to do) and three tapes. The items were unclaimed, so he played the three tapes in sequence. The tapes chronicle a woman's life and several letters she wrote to her brother in her hometown. He began to watch these clips with a curious attitude, to see the bits and pieces of that woman in the house where he lived now, and was gradually attracted to this once lively and cheerful woman, feeling that this woman seemed familiar. Gradually, he began to understand the woman's heart, doing what she had done before - listening to the rain, watching the sea, traveling, shopping, wearing the necklace with a ring, and feeling a woman's initial joy to later disappointment. , loneliness, to the ultimate despair and collapse, even taking her as herself. They seem to have a similar experience: once loved life, but gradually disappointed. They also have relatives they miss far away - Yasmin's younger brother in his hometown and An Runyuan's son in Sydney. An Run once collapsed during the divorce, and stayed out of the house for a long time, not opening the door until Muna was afraid that something would happen to him and came to save him. Then what? Muna said he was okay, but is it really okay? That experience is unforgettable, a wound that will never be healed. Before watching the video tape, An Run didn't want to think about those things. When the last letter was read, he felt lost and wandered around the room with tears in his eyes. He wanted to find the woman and ask her what happened behind her, but how could he find it? He was tired, sat on a chair and rested for a while, and when he looked up, he saw the hook on the roof, where there should have been a ceiling fan, he suddenly realized that the woman might have hanged herself, and that the last letter was her A suicide note left to my brother. He stumbled out the door, crying in the corridor. The old lady of the neighbor's house slowly turned her head to look at him with tears in her eyes. Seems to have known everything. Rather than saying that An Run is crying for Yasmin, it is better to say that he is crying for himself. Maybe he didn't cry during the divorce to release the depression, loneliness and disappointment he had accumulated over the years. In this sense, the video girl is An Run's true confidant. They had lived in the same room and had similar encounters, but the two never met, but the girl's video was accidentally discovered by An Run, and it became a solace in his lonely life. And the carrier of this consolation is only three cassettes of video tapes, which come out of nothingness.
3. Two worlds
In this film, the interaction is mixed between two languages: English and Hindi: I think, this is the two worlds that screenwriter Kiran Rao hopes to show us separated: English-speaking upper class, Hindi-speaking the bottom society.
In the film, Shay and his parents and friends belong to the upper class, while Muna and his brothers belong to the lower class. The plot between Shay and Muna reflects the relationship and conflict between the two basic social classes in India, as well as between European and American culture and traditional Indian culture. In the movie, except for Shay's kindness and equality with Muna, most of the people around Shay expressed disdain for him. Percy doesn't understand why Shay is going on a date with Moona, feeling that they'll end up having nothing to say, and Shay's mother may express hygiene concerns (as reflected in Shay's conversation with her father), Even Shay's maid reminded him not to have too much contact with Muna. We don't know what kind of family Shay's maid came from, but her attitude is thought-provoking. The estrangement between the two classes is not only reflected in social status, but also in communication, common topics, world outlook and many other aspects. Among these people, Shay's attitude towards Muna is the most cordial, which makes Muna somewhat flattered, resulting in an inexplicable favor that he will not forget for a long time. This kind of goodwill deepens with the unfulfilled desire, unable to face it, only to escape. One of his "clients", a woman scolded him: "Don't forget what class you are!" I wonder if Muna can realize that the difference between this class is not only the wrong place, but also the difference between Like in other Indian movies, a true love and the courage to elope can be overcome, but the real problem before them - they are unlikely to understand each other: Shay doesn't understand why Muna came When they came to Mumbai, why did they want to become a movie actor, and Muna didn't understand why Shay didn't stay in the United States and had to go to Mumbai to take a vacation, why she came to Mumbai to shoot a lot of scenes that they could see every day. Shae has no way of understanding what Moon's experience of working as a teenager meant, and Moon's account of Shaye's upper-class life in the United States may only be in the movies and other people's accounts. This kind of difference in the environment has caused a fundamental difference in the way of thinking between the two people. Even though they each yearn for each other's life, there is an insurmountable gap between them. They may each stand on their side and talk to each other, but they can never cross this gap to the other side.
4. One Mumbai
Four people, three relationships, two worlds, one Mumbai.
I didn't know much about Mumbai before, but after checking the information, I found out that Mumbai is India's largest seaport, India's most populous city, an important transportation hub, the sixth largest metropolis in the world, and an important economic and financial center. I think Mumbai is to India what Shanghai is to China. In this way, the struggle of the poor in the film, the pampering of the rich, and the complexity of the relationship between people in this city, the different pursuits of different people, and the different spiritual predicaments of different people can be somewhat understood. In another Indian film, "Death Unknown," Mumbai is portrayed in bright colors and a prosperous economy. Although it also has an older old city, it has a thriving feeling. Compared with "Unknown Death", this film uses a low-chromatic tones to describe the city, the gray-blue sea, the gray-white old town, the gray-black slum roofs, the gray-brown grottoes, and no Baolai. Dock's signature undifferentiated bright sunshine. This is more of a reflection of the city in the hearts of people living in Mumbai. Aamir Khan, the producer and one of the leading actors, is from Mumbai, and the screenwriter and director Kiran Rao has also lived in Mumbai for a long time. The city has a deep understanding. In this city, everyone has his pursuit. These pursuits are different, some people are just for food and clothing, some people want to find a haven of rest, some people want to find inspiration, some people want to realize their ambitions, and some people just want to have a dull life. All kinds of people, some people come, some people leave, some people pass by others, and some people interpret a story in the life of others. In these stories, some people have been accompanied by others, while more people are just passing in other people's lives. They come in a hurry, they go in a hurry. And what he is looking for, walking and walking, he may get lost in this big city and forget his original direction. In such a big city and so many people, can they finally get what they seek? And what they are looking for is a need that comes from the heart, or is it just lost in lust? And how can we achieve a kind of spiritual relief and stability when we can't ask for it?
In the end, Muna told Shay the address of An Run, and it is unknown whether Shay went to find An Run. The ending of the girl on the video tape seems to be suicide, but it has the imaginary meaning of An Run, and the truth is unknown. The film comes to an abrupt end here, leaving us with a line of ellipsis. What is the truth and what will happen next, we have no way of knowing, and we don't have to guess. In such a big city, who can really know what? An Run's toast at the exhibition said: "To Mumbai: give me inspiration, let me fall, my love." This is Mumbai, different people see different Mumbai, can make people successful, make people fall, everything is full of variable. However, this is Mumbai, you and I don't have to understand.
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