Quick Take - The Dirty Picture

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The moment ‘The Dirty Picture’ opens with the superhit Tamil track of 2009, ‘Nakka Mukka’, you realize it’s not going to be an authentic biopic on the sex siren of the 80s & 90s – Silk Smitha. What it is, is a flashy representation of her rise and subsequent fall, told in a full on Masala format. The film belongs to Vidya Balan with her unabashedly bold performance as Reshma alias ‘Silk’. She deserves all the wolf whistles from the front benchers and a standing ovation from film lovers as well. Now, that is quite difficult to achieve for an actress. Milan Luthria’s recreation of the era is quite over the top, but at least it doesn’t offend South Indians much, by resorting to usual stereotypes despite being set completely in Madras. (Mr. SRK, please take note!!)

It is great to see a veteran like Naseeruddin Shah having a ball playing a lecherous and pompous 80s superstar Suryakant, delivering punchlines after punchlines. Emraan Hashmi is also very good, but gets a short role and mostly serves as a narrator. The clashes between him and Vidya should’ve been milked more for more conflict, but the writer & director decides to take the easy route with a lame dream song. Tusshar Kapoor gets a complimentary role yet again in his sister’s production, which doesn’t serve any purpose other than wasting valuable screen time. The film is high on entertainment with whistle-worthy punchlines (complete with double entendres) coming one after the other from the first scene till the last scene (fab job by writer Rajat Aroraa) and scores while projecting Silk’s meteoric rise to stardom. It is while depicting her fall, that the film falters. The narrative stays just on the surface level and does not delve deep enough into the ‘how’s and ‘why’s of silk’s fall and subsequent death. But despite the weak second half, the film works majorly because of Vidya Balan who holds our attention throughout either by displaying her cleavage/ thunder thighs or some serious acting chops. This lady is sure to walk away with all the leading awards for the year. The music by Vishal-Shekhar is loud and massy, staying true to the 80s era with the fantastic ‘Ooh La La’ and the new age ‘Nakka Mukka’ by Vijay Antony transported back to the 80s. In short, watch the film not as a biopic, but as a film inspired from Silk Smitha’s life and be entertained by Miss Balan, Naseer Saab and the killer punchlines. 

Bottomline - Paisa Wasool!!