Watched the dirty picture over the
weekend. (Insert Dilli joke here “Maa, main gandi picchar dekhne jar aha hoon.”
“Theek hain beta. Ghar jaldi aana”)
Yeah, so it was THE Dirty Picture.
Well, here is the gist of it, the
Vidya Balan essayed- Reshma , a sassy village girl runs away to Chennai
to make it big, quickly discovering among its streets the repressed sexuality
that’s a signature of the Indian male – the thigh-groping old man sitting next
to her in theatre or the elderly neighbor. who plugs away at his wife manfully
every night and propositions her in the morning. Her genius lies in her
curiosity and her eventual embracing of it, paving her way into the hearts and
fantasies of larger than life movie-stars and full of life movie fans as the
voluptuous “Silk”. Her curves are her grammar and her dance the syntax of a new
voluptuous, sexual lingua franca. She drops all pretence of middle classed
orthodoxy as she plays the part in real life
“Kya aapko patha hain maine 500
ladkiyon ke saath “tuning” ki hain? “Haan sir, lekin ek ladki saath kabhi
500 baar tuning nahin ki hogi”
The acting is of a high standard and
very quickly, you identify with the character stronger than the actor. The high
point of the movie is the dialogue – classically spicy South Indian – with
crisp double entendres ringing of sassiness and the humor rather than any
twisty vulgarity. “Jab Sharaafat ke kapde utharthe hain, tab sharifon ko hi
sabse zyaada mazaa aata hain". The imagery in the movie - a
Jeetendra era evoking song sequence or the deeply-bloused, bra-peeking south
indian female uniform - is artfully created and adds so much tone to this
80's based story.
I wish the script had spent some time
on the making of Silk’s psyche - the core of her sassiness and
curiosity - but the later half does do justice to her mind -
the making and eventual unraveling of it.
Strangely enough, I thought the movie
could work better for women than for men, the titles and the promo shots are
provocative enough - but it could tap into the Silk in every woman. In
the movie, her impact on men and women is her biggest source of herself and she
uses that as a weapon of offense and defense powerfully. All in all, an
intelligent experience punctuated with crackling humour – It ages a bit in
parts from being out there too long- it isn’t one you can’t do without, but
definitely better off with it.
