The first time Kiran Rao's name entered public consciousness was when she was credited as assistant director for the Oscar-nominated Lagaan.
Then, some time in 2005, she briefly became tabloid fodder when she and actor Aamir Khan, whom she worked with in the film, decided to get married. Khan, one of India's most respected actors, had just come out of a 15-year marriage.
Today, with the release of Dhobi Ghat (Mumbai Diaries), director Rao is all set to emerge from her husband's illustrious shadow.
"We carry so many identities with us," she tells tabloid! over the phone from Mumbai. "And each one is so special to us — wife, director, producer, daughter, sister. All are important and I'd like to be known as all. More than coming out of his shadow, which I have and which is great because I really want to be known for my work, I'm excited because I feel I've assured myself that I have something to say and have a unique voice and I can contribute something."
Dhobi Ghat is Rao's ode to her favourite city and tells the story of four characters from different classes of society whose lives become intertwined.
"I've always known I wanted to make films. It's what I've learnt to do. However, making this film has also been a journey of self discovery — to find content and material that excites me and that will represent me as an artist," she says.
‘A great leader'
Hubby Khan, who produces and stars in the film, is all praises for his wife as a director.
"Kiran is an extremely perceptive director," he says. "She is very sensitive and very good with actors and crew. She's very clear about what she wants and what she doesn't want. Most amazing quality of hers is that no matter what issue is at hand, what question has been posed to her — whether it's regarding an actor or to do with cinematography or sound — she puts her finger right on the core honesty of the moment. She has a very simple approach towards everything. Plus, she's a great leader. She's someone you can trust and feel happy to follow. I felt very secure in her hands."
This raises the question of how Rao handled Khan as an actor who's always said to shadow direct all his projects. Khan denies it outright: "It's untrue. So much has been said about this that this is all I have to say now," he says.
Rao, on her part, says directing him was "enjoyable". "I don't think his suggestions were any more or less than any other actor or member of the crew. These are all creative people and everyone had an opinion and Aamir's point of view was no different from theirs," she says.
"When I felt they were good I took them.
"All my other actors were newcomers and working with them was fun, but we were all learning together — me as a director, they as actors. And working with Aamir was a really freeing experience. He's incredibly experienced and talented and I felt I could experiment with his character, do anything, push it in any direction. He is such a committed and enthusiastic team player and so involved in trying to get the director's vision for her. He was, however, a real help to me at the editing and structuring stage. Being my first film, it was harder to keep the pace of the film because it is a non-linear film."
Rao, who did the casting in-house with her assistants and "through some quirky ways" says she was impressed by Prateik Babbar in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, another Khan production.
"Prateik had changed his look after the film and though we were looking for non-actors for this film, we decided to call him for a screen test. And he was brilliant.
Monica [Dogra] I'd seen on the cover of a magazine. As I read about her, I felt that she not only had a wonderful face but also a lot of energy. She's a singer by profession but a brilliant performer and as she came from the US, she would suit the role of Shai. Kriti [Malhotra] was a real find. I was looking at photos on my assistant's facebook account — she's a friend of his — and I thought her face had a very luminous and gentle quality to it and I asked him to call her in for an audition. She's a costume assistant, never been in front of a camera and never had any intention of becoming an actress. But she is a natural and spontaneous actor. She was able to do it with absolutely no preparation. I was really amazed and I think we have a great actor now."
Looking ahead
Khan meanwhile doesn't say much about his role as Arun apart from the fact that he is a reclusive painter with a lot of baggage. In fact, he places himself at the end of the credits of lead actors. All four characters are equally important but Munna (Babbar's character) is the more author-backed, he insists.
"That's why Kiran and I felt that his name should go first. [Another] reason is that with a star like me in the lead, people could come in expecting a film of a particular kind, especially when it's being released after a series of superhits. It's an arthouse film, and we feared the audience may enter the theatre thinking it is a mainstream film."
With Delhi Belly as the next instalment from Aamir Khan Productions releasing on July 4, the actor is looking forward to start shooting for Rima Kagti's film in March.
Rao, who is already conceptualising her next venture, says she hasn't decided if she will cast her husband again. "It will be a film about classical Indian music and women," she says.
"I haven't started writing it yet. As of now, I only foresee women as protagonists."
With an actor-husband of Khan's stature, one never really knows.
Kiran on Mumbai — the lead character
"I started the film with the idea of writing on the city of Bombay or Mumbai, to look at all the worlds that existed in its various layers. I felt a dhobi (launderer) was the perfect character because of the profession he is connected to so many people, making him privy to lots of people's homes and lives. And then from there the story began to build but that was essentially the idea that made me write this story."
Aamir and the Oscars
"I'm really glad that Peepli [Live] (above) got the kind of response it did from the audience and it being selected as India's entry, representing India at this international platform," says Dhobi Ghat star Aamir Khan.
"But of course you have the best films coming in from all over the world and it feels to be in good company. Every year there [are] 50-60 top films from all over the world and let's see if we'll get to make it to the top five. We'll get to know soon.
"If we get there, we are happy and if we don't, we're still proud to represent our filmmaking fraternity here and to be part of an international community of good film makers."
But having always said awards are no criteria for good performances, why the favourable reasoning for the Academy Awards? "Well, an awards ceremony needs to have value for me and it doesn't matter if it's an Oscar or some other," he says.
"I'll name two award ceremonies which I've been to in India and which I've very high regard for. One of them is the Gollapudi Awards and the other is the Dinanath Mangeshkar Awards. And when they selected me for an award, I was thrilled and honoured. So, it's not just Oscars but any organisation for which, in my heart, I've utmost respect and value for.
"[Another] thing about the Academy Awards is that apart from being an award ceremony, what interests me more is the fact that if you do manage to get nominated, you get seen on a platform and in turn it becomes a platform for you to showcase yourself to the rest of the world. Suddenly your film opens to a whole new audience," he says.
"So that's the kind of window you get internationally if you win something at Cannes or Berlin or Academy Awards."
Rao turns talent into successful debut
As expectations go, Dhobi Ghat is another gem from Aamir Khan. And it is a very serious film.
Arun (Aamir Khan) is a painter who becomes a recluse due to his divorce. But he seems more lonely than a loner. He meets Shai (Monica Dogra), an intelligent rich young girl, but is incapable of committing to her.
The film's subplot involves Munna (Prateik Babbar), a dhobi or a launderer who becomes the link between Arun and Shai.
The movie begins with Arun moving into a new apartment in a very busy area of Mumbai. Here he finds a box containing three video tapes, a silver ring and necklace, and a silver khol receptacle belonging to Yasmeen Noor (Kriti Malhotra), the previous tenant. As Arun watches Yasmeen's visual letters to her younger brother Imran, he not only gets involved in her life, he's inspired to paint again, filling the colours that Yasmeen sees into his work. But as she moves from being happily married to a sad and lonely shadow who ends her life, Arun realises where his life was leading him.
Munna and Shai are two people who are trying to break their social bounds to find their individuality. Shai takes up, what her mother calls "mad" photography shooting workers at the Dhobi Ghat, an area where some two hundred launderers wash the city's clothes, and on the streets. Munna wants to be an actor. They come together when he asks her to shoot his portfolio and an unusual friendship grows between them.
Kiran Rao has said Dhobi Ghat is her tribute to the city of Mumbai. Rao's direction skills, that have been honed under names such as Mani Ratnam, Mira Nair and Ashutosh Gowarikar, are quite evident in her directorial debut. Her slick screenplay and the tight editing by Nishant Radhakrishnan help too — you miss one scene, you miss the chain of thought.
Performances by both girls are good, while Babbar adds to the impact he made in his first film Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. Khan is Arun through and through — Rao could not have made a better choice.
With all that talent, Dhobi Ghat is sure to be an awards favourite.
