A Dilemma called The Dirty Picture

Since the news was out that The Dirty Picture was in making, one string was always harped on by its filmmakers, producers, actors and media that the film is based on the life of sex siren of the south, Vijayalakshmi, popularly known as Silk Smitha.

As the movie was close to its release, thousands of TV shows, newspapers and websites were pouring in with the information about the life of Silk Smitha.

After being acquainted with so many of bits and pieces of Silk Smitha’s life, when me and many others like me were at last in the theatre to watch the movie; to everyone’s surprise the movie began with the disclaimer, “This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.”

Well the deviation from the aforesaid claims hardly mattered to me and many others like me while watching the movie because Indian Cinema had really come of (cleav)age.

But after the movie, me and many other viewers like me (besides adulation for Vidya Balan’s performance) left the theatre with one common confusion: what exactly the movie intended to say? Or rather we left the theatre with too many of obscure and confusing messages?

The film begins with an interesting quote by Nietzsche – ‘One must still have chaos in oneself, to give birth to a dancing star.’ If the filmmaker had stuck to the gist of the quote, he would have created a milestone in Hindi Cinema but at the end of the film one realizes that the filmmaker has just missed from creating a milestone.

Of course the reason behind this failure is the flawed script… and the reason behind the flawed script is the confused approach towards the subject of the film. From the beginning till the end the filmmakers remain confused about whether the script should be based on Silk Smita’s life or should Silk Smita’s life be just an inspiration to pen the script ?

At few places in the script there are well-researched elements … (to be continued)

Zindagi (without ‘soul’) Na Milegi Dobara

After the release Farhan Akhtar on his tweeter account said, “It’s so fantastic that everyone loves the poems in ZNMD. Thank you pa for injecting soul into the film with your gifted hand.”

Undoubtedly, poems recited by Imran and penned by his ‘pa’ ‘inject soul’ into the film, and it’s the poetry in the film which saves the film from becoming a clichéd story of three friends. The poetry in ZNMD certainly gives philosophical touch to the film

Effective, extensive and exact usage of the poems and poetry recitation is quite a rare phenomenon in Hindi films. Largely filmmakers prefer poetry in the form of songs and hardly anyone thinks that poetry recitation can be used as an effective technique in the film.

Indeed the poems in the film take the film to another level but my question here is, do really characters and their respective journeys in the film reach to the level of the messages which poems emanate? Do the characters in Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara inhale the same air which its poem exhale?

The first poem in the film. The poem basically voices the realizations of Arjun after the deep sea diving experience. It’s also possible that poem is voicing the realization of the three friends together. The poem is as follows:

जब जब दर्द का बादल छाया
जब गम का साया लैहराया
जब आँसू पलकों तक आया
जब ये तन्हा दिल घबराया
हमने दिल को ये समझाया
दिल आखिर तू क्यों रोता है
दुनिया मे यूँ ही होता है
ये जो गहरे सऩ्नाटे हैं
वक़्त ने सबको ही बाँटे हैं
थोड़ा गम है सबका किस्सा
थोड़ी धूप है सबका हिस्सा
आँख तेरी बेकार ही नम हैं
हर पल एक नय़ा मौसम है
क्यों तु ऐसे पल खोता है
दिल आखिर तू क्यों रोता है....

Now lets see Arjun’s character:-

Arjun is a financial trader who works with some firm in London. He is basically a young workaholic who wants to make as much money as possible before his 40s. He is so engrossed in his work that initially he even doesn’t want to be a part of the trip his friends are proposing. He is so obsessed with his work that his girlfriend had also left him and finally, Arjun, who can't swim is helped by Laila to overcome his fears.

Now how come the deep-sea diving experience helps workoholic Arjun to reach to the experience (through Imran’s voice) of “ जब जब दर्द का बादल छाया, जब गम का साया लैहराया….”

After watching the film I somehow couldn’t really connect the characters and their journeys to the poems in the film. Somehow the body of the film is not in sync with the soul of the film