Plot

After the passing of her mother and the suicide of her 15-year old sister, Britain-based Ruth Edscer travels to Mumbai, India, to try and locate her father, Arjun Patel. She manages to find employment with a massage parlor where she not only earns a wage but charges Rs.1000/- for a illicit services from her affluent male clients. She has been made aware that she cannot be hired unless and until she is granted a official work permit, so regularly attends the Foreigners Registration Office to extend her stay, while making herself familiar with the culture and 'donations'. Challenges follows after a confrontation with a gangster, Chittiappa Gowda, who not only assaults her but also takes away her savings, as her boyfriend, Prashant, owes him money. While getting even with Prashant, she finds out that her father had changed his name, is now known as Benjamin, and maybe residing in Versova. She does locate the building - but nothing will prepare for the shock when she finds out who he really is.—rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

That Girl in Yellow Boots is a thriller tracing Ruth (Kalki Koechlin), a British woman who comes to Mumbai to search for her father - a man she hardly knew but cannot forget. Without a work permit, desperation drives her to work at a massage parlour. Torn between several schisms, Mumbai becomes the alien but yet strangely familiar backdrop for Ruth's quest. She struggles to find her independence and space even as she is sucked deeper into the labyrinthine politics of the city's underbelly. She starts dating a drug addict Prashant (Prashant Prakash). A city that feeds on her misery, a love that eludes her and above all, a devastating truth that she must encounter. And everyone wants a piece of her. After numerous encounters with people, almost all of whom are depicted as needing to be serviced by her, she discovers that her father is one amongst her regular clients, who knew all along that she was his daughter. In what is possibly seen as a commentary on the cult of godmen in India, her father is shown as one such member of a religious cult, and views having sex with his daughter as an expression of his love. The film ends with Ruth hanging up her yellow boots, her quest having come to a shocking end.

Ruth (Kalki Koechlin) is a British woman who comes to search for her father - a man she hardly knew but cannot forget. Ruth came to India after she got a letter from her father, saying that he wanted to get to know her better. But there was no address on the letter and all Ruth knew was that her father Arjun Patel is in India, and he has a British passport. Without a work permit, desperation drives her to work at a massage parlor. She gives out hand jobs at Rs 1000 a pop & services all sorts of customers. She is accustomed to paying for her way through the city by bribing policemen, external affairs ministry officer (Mushtaq Khan) (for visa) and other crooks who want their piece of the pie.

Torn between several schisms, Mumbai becomes the alien but yet strangely familiar backdrop for Ruth's quest. She struggles to find her independence and space even as she is sucked deeper into the labyrinthine politics of the city's underbelly.

One of her regular customers is Diwakar (Naseeruddin Shah), who visits Ruth as he genuinely cares for her & does not demand any sexual favors from her. Ruth searches for his father in Pondicherry and follows the trail to Goa and then Pune. Lynn (Kumud Mishra) is also one of Ruth's regular customers, who always comes in for a hand job. Maya (Pooja Swaroop) is the madam of the establishment where Ruth works.

She starts dating a drug addict Prashant (Prashant Prakash). Prashant only wants sex from Ruth, and she keeps pushing him back. A city that feeds on her misery, a love that eludes her and above all, a devastating truth that she must encounter. And everyone wants a piece of her. Prashant absconds while he owes money to a drug lord Chittiappa (Gulshan Devaiya ). Chittiappa comes to Ruth's apartment & demands payment from her. He steals her money (she had saved Rs 57,000) & demands the full payment of Rs 123,000. The next time Prashant turns up, Ruth chains him to a window and makes him go through withdrawal. Prashant tells Ruth that his friends duped him by taking him to meet Chittiappa. Once there, Chittiappa accused Prashant of having come to steal his drugs worth Rs 200,000 and demanded the same money from him instead. Chittiapa took drugs from his pocket worth Rs 20,000 and hence Prashant owed Rs 180,000 to Chittiappa.

Chittiappa visits Ruth at the massage parlor and demands a hand job. By then Ruth knows of his traumatic history, when he was separated from his mother by his abusive father. Ruth uses that to her advantage and makes up her own fictitious path along the same lines. This makes Chittiappa cry, and he decides to leave Ruth alone.

Ruth confides to Prashant that she needs someone to love her unconditionally and that's her only motivation to look for her father.

Ruth knows that her father is part of religious cult. She knows his original name but finds from a cult member named Divya (Divya Jagdal) that he has been living under an assumed identity of Benjamin Patel in India. Divya tells Ruth that Benjamin was a weird person and his pass to the Ashram was canceled and he was asked to leave. Divya says that she was with Benjamin when he wrote the letter to Ruth, and that he is living in a flat in Versova in Mumbai.

Ruth bribes the British consulate offer named Peter (Shiv Kumar Subramaniam) to find a list of probable persons who match her description of her father. From Peter she finds that a photographer by the name of Benjamin Patel is indeed registered with the British consulate. Peter wants Ruth to help him entertain some investors from Brussels in exchange for information on Benjamin.

Diwakar finds out that Ruth gives hand jobs and is really angry. He is thrown out of the parlor by Maya. Ruth bribes the postmaster general to get the address against that name. She visits the address & is shocked to see her photos strewn all over the apartment. These pictures have been recently clicked which means that the man has been following Ruth very closely. She finds the picture of the owner of the apartment & immediately runs out.

As the next day starts, her regular morning client Lynn visits and she strikes a conversation asking him why he insists on getting services from her and as he mumbles to answer she throws the hot oil on his back. It is then revealed to our shock that Lynn is her dad and he knows she is his daughter from the start and he is visiting her daily as he loves her. He also reveals that he married her mom, as he loves her step-sister Emily, the same way he loves Ruth. It is him who got Emily pregnant and her mother is aware of it and still did not get her aborted, which is why Emily committed suicide. Lynn keeps saying that he loves her as she walks out of the room.

The film ends with Ruth hanging up her yellow boots and quitting her job at the massage parlor and also presumably leaving the country to go back to Britain; her quest having come to a shocking end.