The Dirty Picture – More Dirty than Picture

Since the time the first trailer of TDP went live, there has been an enormous amount of curiosity surrounding this movie. Milan Luthria’s next venture after the very successful and brilliant movie “Once upon a Time in Mumbai” coupled with Vidya Balan’s probably first time bold and sexy avatar was something that I was definitely looking forward to.

As there were so much expectations riding on the movie, the movie disappoints in many ways.

The Dirty Picture probably focuses more on shocking the audience with its bold images and double meaning sentences than the story itself. The story is confusing and convoluted many times. It revolves around a young plain village girl (played by Vidya Balan) who runs to Madras city to become a heroine. She is ready to do “anything” to grab a role. One accidental role and she transforms into SILK (very clearly laid out on SILK Smitha’s character from South India film industry).

There are three male protagonists in the movie. Naseeruddin Shah is playing a typical South Indian actor who can shoot Rs 100 note and break into 100 coins of Re 1. Tushar plays Naseer’s shy brother by profession a writer but most of the time either in awe of his brother or in awe of Silk. The last but the main Emran Hashmi who never gets his role clear but for a change doesn’t play the Dirty character.

The story revolves around Silk, these three characters and then again Silk. What makes it confusing is are we supposed to sympathize with her or accept her as a popular item girl. She is initially shown to be a clever, opportunist, who gets ready to drop anything that she wears for a break and subsequent roles. Later she gets affected by stardom and bias in the industry which subsequently leads to her downfall.

I believe Milan got obsessed with Vidya Balan’s first time bold image and decided to capitalize it to the maximum extent possible. In this endeavour, he misses the main story line. There are so many questions which are left to the audience to decipher. Why does Emran Hashmi hate her in the first half and then suddenly starts liking her? Is he a director, critic or an actor? Why does the journalist publicly write against her but keeps applauding and appreciating her in private? Why is Tusshar’s role required in the first place? Is being SILK good or bad? The second half probably is more puzzling than the first. At least in first there is a regular dose of “The Dirty Picture”.

All said above, the movie has its many plus points as well. The first is definitely Vidya. Vidya Balan puts in a towering performance and is clearly the highlight of the movie. She will not just amaze you with her sleazy costumes but will also win you with her acting. She is bold and bindaas. She does justice to both halves. The first one where she is naturally sexy and daring and the second one where she wants to continue with her image despite it not being working out. It is so obvious how much hard work and efforts she would have put in to live the image of SILK. Its only Vidya who could pull off such a role with such command. Any other actress, and there are chances the movie would have looked sleazy even bordering on soft porn. The movie will definitely hand over Vidya Balan the best actor award.

The make up man has also done a superb job in the second half including making her look overweight and then trying to conceal her fat.

All three male actors have put in a good job despite a lack of connect built into their roles.

The dialogues are another highlight. Despite being double meaning at many places, the dialogues have been written with so much power. This is in continuation with Once upon a time in Mumbai. Some of the one-liners were razor-sharp and witty at the same time.

Overall, The Dirty Picture is a one-time watch.

A note: Be prepared to whistles and loud roars from college students and others sitting next to you everytime Vidya Balan exposes herself or a double meaning punch is spoken. And I can assure both are there in generous quantities.

Justice for Jessica?

We Indians have a very short memory. I am too tempted to say short term memory loss. We are in the habit of forgetting most of the news that don’t concern us howsoever traumatic or disgusting it might be whether its the numerous scams knocking the top headlines of our newspapers and media channels every day or the hideous rapes and murders that now have become part and parlance of Delhi power politics. And precisely for this reason, we need more movies like “No one killed Jessica”.

‘No one killed Jessica’ is a story on the (in)famous Jessica Lal murder case that stormed our news channels for several years. She was shot dead just because she refused to serve a glass of drink after the pub closed. The murderer 'Manu' was acquitted and only after tremendous media and people pressure, the case was reopened and he was given a life-term sentence. (By the way, the story is still not fully over as the accused was out on bail some months back only to be put behind bars again when he was seeing enjoying himself in a pub and the media created a storm)

The movie per se is not very well directed with the first half excruciatingly slow and a bit confused as well. We are not sure what the director is more concerned about: Is it the status of hi-class societies, the rise of India post Pokhran, Kargil war or just the over-pitched performance of Rani. But the second half picks up and to some extent compensates for the first half. The direction is modestly above average and at some places the movie actually fails to arouse the sentiments of people. This is one movie that should have boiled our bloods but many places people are left laughing at the fillers (like the accused's mother repeating the same dialogue... mere monu ko kuchh nahin hona chahiye). The acting was also not that great with Vidya under acting and Rani over acting. The music is good with the track "dilli" matching the sentiments of the movie.

The place where movie scores is its underlying premise. Its a story worth telling less we forget the injustices meted out to people affected by this case. The long unbearable court proceedings. Imagine a court case that lasts 7 years and still “justice is denied” inspite of 300 witnesses including politicians, police people and social activists. Her own boyfriend who turns hostile midway into the case.

Its a story that should remind us that there are many more such “Jessicas”, “Mattoos”, “Ruchikas”, “Nainas” who have all gone through the same fate where power, politics, law and corruption are all above common man’s plight and his (in most cases 'her') fight for justice. It should once again question the insane and now obsolete laws written during 1800s at the time when "India" didn’t even exist.

As I said, the movie itself might not be very well made but still every Indian should watch the same.

Ishqiya - Review

Ishqiya has all the trademarks of a “Vishal Bhardwaj” movie, yet it’s a big disappointment. Vishal Bhardwaj has built his own genre. Just like his last few movies Kaminey and Omkara, this one too is very raw. Shot in the rural backdrops of Gorakhpur, a Eastern UP town famous for gang wars and mafia, the movie captures the lingo and feel accurately. Like all his previous movies, this one too starts with a bang, moves at a swift pace and builds the tempo and expectations quite high. But where it fails is the end. It ends with a whimper. The entire pace fizzles out in the ending. It appears as if after shooting the movie for 1.5 hrs, the director suddenly forgets the core plot and decides to end it abruptly. It loses the sheen to such an extent that you really feel sorry for a good product turn bad.

The biggest plus going for the movie is the performance of its 3 central characters (Naseer, Arshad and Vidya Balan). There has never been a doubt of Naseer’s performance. He looks apt in both the con part as well as the aged person falling in love with the tantalizing Vidya. Vidya too carries out her role with ease. Though the storyline for her character definitely needed improvement. Through out the movie, she has been shown as some mysterious woman with dark secrets which in the end just doesn’t match up. The best one-liners and witty remarks have been kept in Arshad’s accounts. They are clever, sharp and keep the audience hoping for more. Even some of the other characters like Naseer’s Brother-in-law and the kiddo Nandu engages you.

The dialogues are raw and crude and sometimes border on the edge but that’s something that you now expect out of Vishal’s movie.

The music has been good and has been on the charts for quite some time especially “Ibn e batuta” and “dil to bachcha hai ji”. Apart from the movie songs, the old songs have also been woven very well with the chemistry between the characters.

While the movie has the darkness of Omkara and wittiness of Kaminey, it lacks the punch and edginees that most of Vishal’s movies are famous of. The movie can still be a one-time watch with low expectations.

By the way, I believe this movie might have broken the “longest kissing scene” in Bollywood. It definitely seems longer than the one in ‘Raja Hindustani’ between Aamir and Karishma.