Monday, December 05, 2011

Movie Review: The Dirty Picture




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.

1 comment:

Anand Kumar G said...

amazing performance by vidya balan.its a great tribute to the late actress played vidya balan.thanks vidya for bringing her emotions to light for all the high drama so called family people.have fallen in love with silk and her boldness.men do require such bold characters.