This Time, Dirty is Good

Vidya Balan has pulled out all the stops in The Dirty Picture and that in itself is a pleasure to watch, at least in the entertaining first half of the movie.

For a Kerala Iyer girl from a traditional, if not conservative, family, the role of Silk must have taken some doing for Vidya to play it right. What you realise as you watch TDP is that Vidya is certainly one of the best actresses (not to be confused with star) in Bollywood.

Though Vidya undergoes as much of a physical transformation here as in ‘No One Killed Jessica’, her body language in TDP (though always in your face) is not as effective as in ‘Jessica’. In this movie, you always know that Vidya is putting on an act – the cleavage working overtime, the mouth and tongue engaged in seductive acrobatics, the right eye ever ready to wink. One may argue that Silk herself is putting on an act for the entertainment of her audience. True, but she comes to believe in and identify with her image. This bit of transformational truth is not reflected in Vidya’s body language.

One of Vidya’s biggest drawbacks is her lack of dancing skills. Silk Smitha, on whom Silk is apparently based, was first and foremost a film cabaret dancer. A role inspired by her needed a good dancer. Vidya is evidently ill at ease in the song ‘Honeymoon ki Raat’, which is a throwback to the old Bollywood device of the competitive party song-n-dance. This song, like in the 50s and 60s, should have been the highlight of the movie, but isn’t.

Why I have already spent four paragraphs of this review on Vidya Balan is simple. The Dirty Picture is all about Vidya Balan; not even Naseeruddin Shah manages to steal her limelight. I, like most of her on-screen audience, watched the first half open-mouthed, not so much at the skin show as at the sheer fun Vidya was having playing the role of Reshma/Silk, vamping it up all through.

Vidya also deserves credit for carrying off all that weight so lightly. There is a cringe-worthy scene where a failing, overweight Silk is trying to button her jeans around a hanging paunch. No top Bollywood heroine will dare do that on screen.

If you forget this film is even remotely about Silk Smitha, Vidya’s performance is credible though never true to life. The moment you imagine Silk Smitha, Vidya pales in comparison. Vidya has none of the smouldering sexiness that was Silk Smitha’s hallmark, or the droopy bedroom eyes, or thick drool lips, or the coy girlie voice. I wish Vidya had used more of her eyes, like the original Silk used to (Silk Smitha was actually a good actress, a fact overwhelmingly overlooked).

But if this movie was even covertly about Silk Smitha, then TDP has done a disservice to the late actress. There is no real attempt to look at the grime behind the scenes, the circumstances that gave birth to Silk, her exploitation in the industry and the eventual downfall. The decline of Vidya’s Silk is shown to be spurred by her mother’s rejection of her, her romantic failures and her failing fortunes. Was that all there was to it? Till today, no one knows what really killed Silk Smitha.

I wish TDP had gone a little deeper into the travails of an actress who ended up a cabaret dancer and soft-porn heroine.

Director Milan Luthria, like in ‘Once Upon a Time in Mumbai’, successfully recreates the period (1980s) as captured in films. The opening negative-celluloid scenes, the grand outdoors song (helped in no small measure by a vintage Bappi-da), the party song-n-dance, the backscreen driving, the taali-waala dialogues are all a pleasure to watch all over again. But that doesn’t make TDP as good a movie as his mafia saga.

The second half is especially disappointing. The belated romance between Silk and failed director-turned-hero Abraham feels like an appendage. There is no build-up to Silk’s final desperation and her tragic end. It feels like the director suddenly grew aware of the need to end the film within a given time.

But despite the shortcomings, TDP is worth a watch or two. It’s not every day that a movie like TDP is made in Bollywood and an actress like Vidya Balan lays it all out for all to see (read, her courageous performance).

I give TDP an 8 on 10. Must watch.