Feb 27, 2009 02:16 PM
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And what a bevy of them there are…Shabana, Smita, Ratna Pathak, Anita Kanwar, Ila Arun, Neena Gupta, Soni Razdan etal. Nubile young leading ladies of the new wave of cinema. What talent and what beauty, whoever said that one is exclusive of the other?
As the name crudely suggests, it’s simply a few days in the life of ladies of a ‘kotha’. The writer and director take the route of black humor to comment upon conveniently changing societal morals and the equanimity with which these women bear the brunt of others actions. No man can be their enemy as each one is a possible customer!
Being the very dregs of a moralistic society makes them no more than puppets in the hands of the moral police and its ever changing values, subject of course to political and financial influences. Their fate hangs precariously in the hands of a few powerful men and women who want them ousted from their brothel and the city in the name of values and development.
The cast is led by the fantastically theatrical Shabana Azmi as Rukminibai, the scheming kotha Madam with her mangalsutra and ever falling saree pallu. There is Smita Patel as Zeenat, the young singing star of the house, who for some reason has been kept away from the lecherous reaching male admirers but is not untouched by her own beauty and wiles.
There is Neena Gupta in her much thinner avatar as the perpetually over-madeup kathak proponent and Anita Kanwar who doesn’t mind lifting her saree for the occasional photo op by the Elvis Presleyish ‘photoowala’ played by a brilliant Om Puri. He is loud in his language, shirts and actions and you love him for his unbridled lasciviousness.
But watch out for Naseeruddin Shah’s drunken rants as the unrequited admirer of the kotha madam, Tungrus. He is wonderfully raggedy and stupid almost no better than the monkey he apes in one scene. Notice the subtle references to the love and deep care between Rukminibai and Tungrus, never portrayed in anything other than raves and rants on either’ part!
The rest of the cast has Pankaj Kapoor as the pimply and oily young flunkie of the local womens activist, who wants nothing better than to be ‘inside’ the kotha. Kulbhushan Kharbada as the grabbing businessman and Saeed Jaffri as the man with a troubling past add colour to the cast. Anu Kapoor plays the doctor who alone refuses to judge the prostitues or treat them as anything less than human.
Shyam Bengal is in his true element and the movie quite deservedly got a national award too. It was made in the mid eighties but definitely does not seem dated either in story, spirit or looks.
Watch this movie for the performances as the actors push this one much above the ordinary. See it also for a contemplative moment or two.
