Get the (Dirty) Picture

Why the movie matters even though it is far from groundbreaking cinema

Feminist and Lady Shri Ram College Professor Bindu Menon regards the film The Dirty Picture as the mother of the legend of Vidya Balan. And though she sees the movie as one that has not truly understood the life of Silk Smitha, she has no doubt that Vidya deserved her National Award for it. “It’s not about whether the film does justice to Silk. It’s about the questions it raises—about the position of the vamp, about a male-dominated industry, about body image—and the fact that the character is played by a star such as Vidya makes it powerful,” says the film scholar.

Vidya is unique in her stardom. She is the ‘fourth Khan’, newspapers have proclaimed. She has changed the way the industry functions. The size zeros better be scared now. She is the new ‘sexy’. In the past few months, Vidya Balan, once branded fat, frumpy and unlucky, has been touted as the best thing that happened to Indian cinema—a woman who is doing it on her own terms. She has also supposedly “unleashed the feminist in her” by choosing women-centric roles. But how do other feminists view her? Has she really given Indian cinema a new take on women?

Professor Menon says, “It’s very hard to play Silk, who was always performing her own character as well. And there was much more to her than just being a vamp, which the movie doesn’t seem to have addressed. But it has generated a renewed interest in Silk, and it has also made us talk about how actresses are treated in this male-centric industry. It’s also very important that an actress like Vidya, who is different from the current crop, played the role. It was important she won a National Award.”

Freelance journalist Manjula Narayan recalls a conversation with her filmmaker friend who compared The Dirty Picture to the 1980 BR Chopra film Insaaf Ka Taraazu. “We were talking about how that movie was pitched as Zeenat Aman’s feminist flick, where she gets revenge against the man who rapes her and her sister. But in fact everyone just went to watch the rape scenes. The Dirty Picture, in many ways, is a boob-fest and that’s why people went to watch it. Neither is it directed well. And saying it is ‘feminist’ is terribly wrong. But the award going to Vidya is all good. Do you know any other actress who will put on weight, agree to look ugly and experiment? Can you see a Priyanka Chopra not looking good? Vidya deserved the award for being that actress.”

The hype around the movie did seem to focus more on how much flesh Vidya shows off, or the dirty lines she mouths. The moans, groans and lip bites were all over billboards and TV screens. So it’s no surprise that some say the “intellectual titillation” was just that—titillation. CS Venkiteswaran, feminist and film critic who won a National Award for best film critic in 2010, doesn’t understand all the fuss over Vidya. “The movie is a body show, and throughout the movie, she plays a victim. Vidya just plays a person and proves her point, not her own. Silk’s life was much more complex and tragic. I feel Hindi cinema ended up looking very condescending towards South Indian cinema with this film. It’s an ordinary movie, and an ordinary performance, and she didn’t deserve the award.”

Venkiteswaran’s view doesn’t seem to have many takers. The movie itself may not have wowed feminist critics, but few among them take exception to Vidya Balan’s National Award. Author of The Bad Boy’s Guide to the Good Indian Girl and journalist Annie Zaidi gives it to us straight: “The problem with the movie is that it doesn’t allow Vidya anything but sexuality. She was so much better in Ishqiya. But she is one of the best performers we have today. She uses her body as the character, and that’s brilliant. She has brought back the trend of making women-centric movies, and that itself is a great feat.” Says Shilpa Phadke, co-author of Why Loiter? Women and Risk on Mumbai Streets and assistant professor at the Centre of Media and Cultural Studies at TISS, Mumbai, “I think The Dirty Picture was quite boring but what Vidya Balan did as Silk was interesting. Making the case that even titillation is about choice has the potential to make a case for a kind of sexual agency. It’s not so much the film as what Vidya Balan does with it on talk shows that offers the possibility of seeing a particular kind of non-monogamous, in-your-face sex in cinema as something more than just ‘obscene.’”

Many talk shows over the past few months have lent body to this discussion. We’ve all heard how playing Silk freed Vidya of her “inhibitions” and how she was finally who she always wanted to be. She was recently described by Barkha Dutt as “the toast of our times—constantly challenging so many conventional depictions of women and pushing the boundaries with The Dirty Picture” in an NDTV Women’s Day Special. On the same show, admitting that she worked in a sexist industry, Vidya said, “In Silk Smitha’s case, it was pure exploitation. While in my case, I allowed the exploitation as an actress in The Dirty Picture. It’s the choice that is empowering. I promoted [the film] in such a way that people came to the theatres, but once they got to the theatres, they could see beyond what they thought the movie was going to be.”

Most seem to agree that The Dirty Picture was not groundbreaking cinema or even a competent biopic, and yet critical opinion seems to coalesce around its “significance”, around Balan’s star turn in it, around the legitimacy of the National Award for Balan, and what all this might mean for reviews of gender stereotypes. As journalist and avowed feminist Shobha SV says, “She is trying to push the envelope and making radical choices. As far as body image goes, she has changed the way we women look at ourselves. She is not playing safe. We have to wait and watch what she does in the future. But for now, she’s the one actress who gives us hope, and that’s what is so encouraging.”

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Aastha Atray Banan