The Dirty Picture

It is commonly believed that heroine (read women) oriented films are never a guarantee for success, especially in Bollywood.  But here is one movie that is out there to prove us all wrong.  'Dirty Picture' is a look back at the 1980's when plus-sized heroines as well as dance-girls posed as sex-sirens on the screen ensured a movies success.  The southern Starlet Silk Smitha was an undisputed queen of this crowd and this movie was a good  attempt at focusing on her life and times . 

Pic Courtesy : Chitramala.in

Dirty Picture is a semi-biography of sorts about this actress who used her oomph and sexuality to good measure, leaving men panting, and marking her presence in tamil movies as an instant guarantee for cash registers ringing. Vidya Balan, who is otherwise known for her non-conformist and clean image, plays the role of Reshma or just 'Silk' to good effect in this thought provoking film.  At these times, when her peers are running after size-zero, Vidya Balan is gutsy enough to add 12 Kilos to and flaunt it too.

The Story

The story follows Reshma (Vidya Balan), a run-away bride, landing herself in a Movie set asking for a role . She is turned off from the sets for being ugly and un-glamorous.  She is resolute to make it big  and continues her struggle until she gets a role as a female dancer complete with pouting lips and revealing attire.  The raunchy song becomes an instant success, and thus was born 'Silk'. Through out her life, many men fill in her days only to cause distress and those include her childhood idol Suryakant (Nasiruddin Shah), RamaKant (Tussar Kapoor) who is the brother of Suryakant.  Ramakant genuinely loves Silk and wants to marry her, but his parents are embarrassed by her wild ways.  Abraham(Emraan Hashmi), is another person who enters Silk's later life and it is Abraham who stays till her end helping her mother to cremate her dead body in the finale.  

The story basically is about Reshma(Silk), from being a make-up girl to her rise to stardom, and ultimately to her tragic death by swallowing sleeping pills.  It is the story of a woman, who had a care-free attitude, and lived her life without thinking twice (sample this dialogue where Silk says : "ज़िन्दगी  एक  बार  मिलती  हे, तो  दो  बार  क्यूँ  सोचना ?).  Dirty Picture is also about the portrayal of women as objects of 'Entertainment' and how  women start accepting this as a way of life.  Silk ultimately had to succumb to the society's bad-mouthing and exploitative nature.  

Dirty Picture is basically a tight rope-walk between the sensual silk and her life as an exploited woman.  The movie Shows her short-lived rise to fame as also the contradiction of her as the object of male fantasy and her quest for love, only to find infidelity and unfaithfulness from the men she love. This catalysis  her fall from 'grace' and leads her towards loneliness and ultimately to suicide.  The film reeks of the apparent hypocrisy that exist in the society as a whole.  She is crestfallen by this duplicity of being revered by the people whom she feeds with her sexuality, but the very same people, wearing a mask of bogusness, is ever ready to put a question mark on her character.    

My Take

All in all, the movie is pure entertainment, intertwined with humour (not at all crass) and mimicry of the old times.  Vidya Balan literally lives the character and does full justice to the role of Silk and carries the film from start to finish.  Having given the job of playing a sex-siren, Vidya Balan carries it wonderfully, and never makes her character look vulgar on screen.  Instead she oozes sensuality. Nasiruddhin Shah is wonderful as the ageing superstar and having given the brief to mimic a certain style of acting which was prevelant at that time, he does it with aplomb.  Emraan Hashmi and Tussar Kapoor play their part well and this is just another instance where Emraan shows us that he can act and very well indeed.  Anju Mahendroo's cameo as the Fashion Journalist is worth mentioning.  Just like the 'lady-in-the-lead', Dialogues are hard-hitting and is another attraction.  The music is over-hyped and is an average fare. The good thing about the movie is that it is never judgmental anywhere about the life of Silk.   

The movie is surely worth a watch, just for Vidya Balan's performance and will be a trend-setter of sorts, hoping that, this will inspire more movie-makers to try and experiment with women-oriented subjects.    That would indeed be a real turn-around for Bollywood.

...Prasanth Menon

Tags & Links : Vidya Balan, Nasiruddhin Shah, Emraan Hashmi, Dirty Picture at Imdb, Milan Luthria