Dhobi Ghat review

The city is the star in writer/director Kiran Rao’s Mumbai-set debut, which tracks four overlapping lives: an artist in search of inspiration; a laundryman who dreams of Bollywood fame; a US-based Indian woman looking for the real India; and a small-town woman who makes melancholic video diaries.

Rao keeps her husband and producer – Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan – from hogging the limelight, allowing the minutiae of city life to take centre stage.

Emotive and evocative, it’s helped by Gustavo Santaolalla’s (Babel) outstanding score.