Aamir Khan starring 'Dhobi Ghaat' At Toronto International Film Festival

Aamir Khan starring 'Dhobi Ghaat' has won praise from Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) co-director Cameron Bailey who compares it to savory 'salty lime soda over crushed ice!'

Dhobi Ghaat

The film by debutante director and Aamir's wife Kiran Rao, will have its world premiere during TIFF 2010 that runs September 9 through the 19th.

Cameron compared some of the 51 films selected for the festival to drinks, over his Twitter account

"Huge list of 50 Galas and Special Presentations for TIFF10 announced today. Think of them as drinks.

DHOBI GHAT = salty lime soda over crushed ice

THE CONSPIRATOR, for instance, would be bourbon on the rocks.

RABBIT HOLE = pinot noir

@joe_ikeda NORWEGIAN WOOD = something sweet and sharp: saketini?

Nice one. But it's a bit microbrewery too. @Jake_Howell: BLUE VALENTINE = Pabst Blue Ribbon?

OK, two more drinks before bed: NEVER LET ME GO = complex trappist brew, BRIGHTON ROCK = gin."

When Sawf News asked Cameron why he picked Dhobi Ghaat for the festival he responded:

"Because it's not Bollywood: it's something fresh, something passionate from a very smart couple."

The film will be distributed by Aamir Khan Production. Aamir says he is taking the risk of going solo for this film - unlike Peepli Live and Delhi Belly, both of which he is co-producing with UTV - so that he has artistic freedom.

"If I want to have the freedom, I must also be prepared to take the financial responsibility in my stride. Even if I lose money, it's mine," Aamir recently told HT.

The film made headlines when Aamir and Kiran Rao got Oscar winner Gustavo Santaolalla of Argentina to Mumbai to score its background music.

Inspired by real life issues, the film has been guerrilla shot in Mumbai with hidden cameras to avoid catching public attention.

Aamir plays an art teacher and painter named Arun who lives in a small studio apartment in some congested area of Mumbai city. Prateik Babbar plays a washerman named Munna, the main protagonist in the film. Om Puri and debutant Monica Dogra of New York are among the rest of the cast.

Official synopsis:

Set in Mumbai, the lives of four characters intersect at Dhobi Ghat.

In the teeming metropolis of Mumbai, four people separated by class and language are drawn together in compelling relationships. Shai, an affluent investment banker on a sabbatical, strikes up an unusual friendship with Munna, a young and beautiful laundry boy with ambitions of being a Bollywood actor, and has a brief dalliance with Arun, a gifted painter. As they slip away from familiar moorings and drift closer together, the city finds its way into the crevices of their inner worlds.