Dhobi Ghat is a strangely uneven film. Its beginning feels amateurishly put together; as it heads onwards, though, it finds an easy, flowing rhythm with just the occasional stutter.

Nearly every element of Rao's debut is uneven. But her passionate vision of so much useless prejudice leaves a lingering impact.

The sex/class conflicts are way too twee.

This is still a love story, both for the city of Mumbai and for the kind of love that is as unaccounted for as it is freely given.