Just before the movie begins, as people
get settled into their seats with their popcorns and nachos, it’s interesting
to listen to their conversations. You are all sitting in a confined space so it is not even eavesdropping.
The couple next to me this time was one
of those know-it all husbands who lectures (not informs) his wife of what he
thinks is the god given truth. And like with all Indian men of a certain
vintage, it is usually delivered with the finality that assumes women would
automatically not know these things.
“Because it is about Silk Smitha, this
movie will be a hit in the south and will not do well in north India
Then showing the attention span of a child he took the last bite of the donut
he was munching on and declared “My donut is not good. Too much chocolate and
not enough bread.”
Well I sat there and both agreed and disagreed.
I agreed
about the donut (more on that later) but disagreed about the hit status.
This movie is about a vamp with large
boobies & little inhibitions and men everywhere love breasts. Period!
There is nothing north or south about
that and if the weekend collections are anything to go by then it just proves
my point. The Booby Picture is a BIG hit.
Vidya Balan plays Silk which is loosely
based on the tragic (is there any other type) life of Silk Smitha but it could
be the story of any vamp of the 80’s like Nylon Nalini or Polyester Padmini.
Infact for that matter it could be about
anyone even today.
Girls who are good enough to titillate in
private but not respectable enough for public consumption.
I am sure that even as bindaas as Rakhi
Sawant tries to be, watching this movie must have been like an epiphany for
her.
The garish clothes may have gone but
Bollywood, I doubt, has changed much.
I won’t go too much into the story as it
doesn’t have much and hence my agreement with the donut comment above.
Just like that over-chocolated donut,
this movie also has too much of bosom, cleavage and double entendres. All of that is all
very good but like that donut again, the absence of bread/story is what makes
this movie averagely entertaining.
There is a wonderfully colloquial word
in Nepali called ‘nyaakka’ to express the feeling when you have had too much of a
good thing that you stop desiring it. Something akin to being fed-up but means
much more in Nepali.
The Dirty Picture is like that. Great
initially but after the story-less bosom has been let loose for more than 2
hours it starts to get a little nauseating.
“After a woman has shown everything,
what else remains” says a character in the film and after the initial shock
value, this movie too descends into banality.
But there are some great performances
here.
Vidya is very brave and not only does
she play against type but also discards vanity for this role. The fat cheeks as
she wastes away towards the end may be prosthetics but the flabby belly is real
and she flaunts it absolutely uninhibitedly. For an A list Bollywood star, this
is unthinkable. She lacks the raunchiness that the original Silk probably had
but makes up for that with her acting. Whether it is the naughty sounds she
makes when disturbed at home, the bath-tub staged interview or the impromptu
dance-press conference in front of a reporter’s house, she sets the screen on
fire. Can’t think of any actress who would/could have done this.
Naseeruddin Shah has always been a
wonderfully modulated actor and here he gets to play the main lead who is a
lecherous ageing superstar and he bites in deep and delivers the best
performance of the film.
Never getting out of character he plays
Smashing Surya with such glee that (in the immortal lyrics from Delhi Belly)
you actually love him - like you hate him - like you love him.
“You’re a genius sir, Genius” says a
lackey and he replies without the slightest trace of modesty “I know, but it
is a curse. It’s a curse”
In a scene that got some of the biggest
laughs in the theatre, the 60+ actor plays a college student who’s just come
home with a first-class-first degree to his mother.
It’s sadly ironical that the lady
playing his mother is not only younger than him but that a few films earlier
she was actually his heroine.
Even sadder is the fact that this is not
just funny in the movie but that it is also true in reality. Even now!
While studying at St.
Joseph ’s college in Bangalore
Curious, we went to check and saw that
it was a movie being shot with the reigning Malyalam superstar Mammoty.
And he
was playing a college student. A
Now I know that this was quite a few
years ago (during the 90’s actually) and that some time has passed but the only
time when Mammoty was eligible to be a college student was when India
And closer home, hasn’t Amitabh played
both lover and son to the likes of Waheeda Rahman and Rakhee?
Emraan Hashmi has a badly written and
unconvincing role but it must be a sign of his performance improving because he
is actually quite likeable. And as is mandatory with him he does get to sing a
song (absolutely unnecessary) and ofcouse snog the lady.
Tusshar (for some reason without the
Kapoor surname) is so miscast that he looks like an idiot. He should have been
naïve but he plays it like a fool. And when he breaks into the Oo la La song you
can see why he is soo miscast. But I guess with your sis and mom producing the
movie you should get to have some
benefits.
Anju Mahendru has some delicious fun,
smoking a cigarette and playing some gossip editor which I’m sure was based on
the legendary bitch from Stardust, Devi.
So all in all, a pedestrian script
lifted by 2 great performances.
So Oo Laa Laa to the 2. Naseer and Vidya.
Boo to the rest.
P.S. There is a great nakka-mukka tamil-ish song that keeps coming up which is electric.
No comments:
Post a Comment