Film: "The Dirty Picture"; Cast: Vidya Balan, Naseeruddin Shah, Emraan Hashmi, Tusshar Kapoor; Director: Milan Luthria, Producer: Ekta Kapoor; Rating **
Is it a voyeuristic peep-eye or the projection of a woman who lives life on her own terms? Does it hold up a mirror to an exploitative society or actually become part of it? The lines keep blurring in "The Dirty Picture", leaving the movie about a southern sex star's rise to fame in the 1980s film industry and her tragic fall from it an inchoate, confused mess.
The film begins with the lofty quote from Friedrich Nietzsche: "You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star." And opens with a young Reshma (Vidya Balan in a bravura performance) falling off a ladder, confident her mother will be there to pick her up. The dark abyss after that is telling. There she is, now a young woman, laughing delightfully at the discomfiture of a couple making out in the room next door with her moans accompanying the creaking of the bed.
Alas, the promise of that beginning, the hoped for portrayal of a sassy woman who is unashamed of her sexuality, peters out soon enough.
Reshma evolves into Silk, enters the movies and claws her way to the top using the aging superstar Surya (Naseeruddin Shah). There are others she meets along the way, Surya's awkward writer brother Ramakant (Tusshar Kapoor), the cerebral filmmaker Abraham (Emraan Hashmi) who has only contempt for her and the various directors who use her sensuality to bring in the front-benchers and the moolah.
There is a disclaimer at the beginning that this film is based on fiction. But, of course, that is a flimsy cover for a film on the life of Silk Smitha who committed suicide at the end of career that saw dazzling fame and also ignominy.
The problem with "The Dirty Picture" is that we never really get a grip on Silk's character. Here is a woman who revels in her body, looks on knowingly as the filmmaker offering her her first job watches her lustily and, given her first stab in front of the camera, wants to impress the choreographer and unasked sheds it all - clothes and inhibitions.
Is it a voyeuristic peep-eye or the projection of a woman who lives life on her own terms? Does it hold up a mirror to an exploitative society or actually become part of it? The lines keep blurring in "The Dirty Picture", leaving the movie about a southern sex star's rise to fame in the 1980s film industry and her tragic fall from it an inchoate, confused mess.
The film begins with the lofty quote from Friedrich Nietzsche: "You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star." And opens with a young Reshma (Vidya Balan in a bravura performance) falling off a ladder, confident her mother will be there to pick her up. The dark abyss after that is telling. There she is, now a young woman, laughing delightfully at the discomfiture of a couple making out in the room next door with her moans accompanying the creaking of the bed.
Alas, the promise of that beginning, the hoped for portrayal of a sassy woman who is unashamed of her sexuality, peters out soon enough.
Reshma evolves into Silk, enters the movies and claws her way to the top using the aging superstar Surya (Naseeruddin Shah). There are others she meets along the way, Surya's awkward writer brother Ramakant (Tusshar Kapoor), the cerebral filmmaker Abraham (Emraan Hashmi) who has only contempt for her and the various directors who use her sensuality to bring in the front-benchers and the moolah.
There is a disclaimer at the beginning that this film is based on fiction. But, of course, that is a flimsy cover for a film on the life of Silk Smitha who committed suicide at the end of career that saw dazzling fame and also ignominy.
The problem with "The Dirty Picture" is that we never really get a grip on Silk's character. Here is a woman who revels in her body, looks on knowingly as the filmmaker offering her her first job watches her lustily and, given her first stab in front of the camera, wants to impress the choreographer and unasked sheds it all - clothes and inhibitions.
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