~~~A True Dirty Picture~~~. Review on The Dirty Picture

Our body is only a bundle of flesh and bone moved to the desires of the soul or self which looks for gratification and approval on any given moment. One's name becomes the favorite since it pleases the self, so is one's photo. We are slaves of greed by the soul.

The secret of success in film industry can be told in three words. Entertainment, Entertainment &Entertainment! Young Reshma (Vidya Balan) had always wished to be seen on silver screen. The night before her proposed marriage, she eloped with her dream to become an actress and landed up in the streets of Madras. In any given day she will prefer a movie ahead of a Masala Dosa, even if she is hungry for a day. As a ritual she will queue up hoping for a chance of a junior artist and every time she will get rejected. She is ready to 'anything' to get the role, so are the many in the queue, so no chance left for this unattractive girl. Reshma however was not ready to give up. She gets an accidental entry to the world of film. When she receives an offer to do a seduction number with an actor on whom she has a crush next, she could not do that even after several takes. Facing with the reality of throwing out of the project means an exit from the world of her dreams, she has by now learned the value of entertainment. What follows is the sudden rise of a sexy siren who will rule the industry for long but her fall will be equally fast.

The effort by the producers and the director need to be applauded in the first hand for bringing life to the story of a tragic heroine with the best of possible sincerity. This is not the story of a single actress. It is a tribute to many who has burned themselves in the fire of glamour. I am sure it is not accidental that the names of the glamour actresses in the movie are from the sexy sirens of the 00s. i.e. Reshmaand Shakeela. If there had Smithas in 80s, there were Reshmas in 00, If there had Anuradhas in 80s there have Shakeelas in 00s. The fire fly game of glamour continues. Some escape the scene with burns some dies instantly. The film is not going to change the fate of all those glamour girls, no. Then it is an honest attempt to show that there is a living human being under the exposed skins and they deserve a better consideration from us.

Having a good cause is good but making it as a value for money entertainment is another ball game and director Milan Luthria did complete justice in that task. The selection of cast and crew was perfect, let it be the writer, actors, technicians the director chooses the right candidates and gets the best from all. He selects a theme which has universal appeal and presents without losing the entertainment value keeping the artistic values intact. Writing is the backbone of any good film and Dirty Picture has a strong backbone here. The writer keeps the viewer in mind while extracting the story and the near to perfect screenplay made sure that each scene is gripping. Sharp and hard hitting dialogues which have many edges rip past any hindrance come against it. The dialogues are sure to get some whistle blowing from the audience and this is one film which you will love to watch again for the power of screenplay and dialogues. Hats off to Rajat Arora! The work of Milan magnifies the efforts of Rajat and we have a complete entertainer in our hand.

When the pictures of Vidya Balan were flooded in the internet with the plus sexy photos I had often asked this question, why Vidya has agree to expose this much at this stage of her career. After watching the movie, I can only say, Pranam to Vidya's courage to accept the role, doing it with complete justice to the yesteryear. She has put on weight for the role and we only realise the importance of the sacrifice with the situations in the movie. This performance without doubt is the finest performance I have witnessed so far this year in any movies, the finest by Vidya in her career and I have to say probably that is the best female performance in the last couple of years. It could not have done better. Nasarrudin Shah did a class performance and it is a sheer delight to see him in a full fledged role and he gives out some lessons of acting for sure. Emran Hashmi is very good. Tusshar Kapoor only had a small role which he did well. Anju Mahendroo as the journalist was quite good. Rest everybody did their roles convincingly. Overall, performance of the movie is one of the top-class!

Music of the film makes the presence from the very beginning. Songs and background music, the music department well supplements the film. Ooh la la....just rocks with foot taping music and it is there to rule. Ishq Sufiyana too is cool. Other songs as well contribute well to the subject and the situations. Add to it is the brilliant choreography by Pony Prakash Raj (Pony Verma) bringing life to nostalgic memories of yesteryears the songs and music with sufficient dose of glamour magnifies its effects.

Cinematography by Boby Singh is excellent. Beauty to your eyes, giving depth and life to the moments, Boby's camera works wonders there. Editing is one notch-up. Very good! The pacing and flow is excellent and uninterrupted.

On the negative side, the film drags a bit in the second half where the success story of the heroine takes a beat, after half an hour or so. Then, the lost interest was regained with good sequencing of climax to leave an excellent overall opinion. Casting of Shakila could have been better. Somebody to resemble Anuradha or Jayamalini could have been better. As of now, she seems no fight for Reshma. The story is set in Madras and everybody speaks Hindi there, except for a word called Amma and Masaladosa do not go well with the lingual landscape. Ok, Masala Dosa is Masala Dosa in Hindi as well, so having set it in Madras, we are left with only one Tamil word or say South Indian word, Amma. Or is that I didn't notice other Tamil language words for the gripping of the scenes? Now I have to watch it again to confirm that.

A note of warning is been issued for the skin show, though it is obvious. Vidya Balan has gone a step further in transforming herself to the character and the skin show is just a step further than one may expect. Then, there is nothing we can say as vulgar in the movie and it is a good mature watch for adults.

The movie has many brilliant moments in it. Some are funny, some are beautiful and many are thoughtful. There is a scene where Vidya (read Reshma) goes to watch her first silver screen presence with her adopted Amma and the scene passes the pain brilliantly.Vidya's meeting with Nasaruddin Shah after he refuse to act with her in the beginning is superb. Vidya's hiding in toilet when the hero's wife comes to his bedroom is simply fine.Vidya taking the revenge to the journalist for refusing to give her entry to her house is funny and sweet. Vidya's speech receiving the award is brilliant.Vidya's mother closes the door against her witnessing the crowd, heart touching. Emran tells to Nasaruddin Shah that he is not a pimp. I can list a dozen without any trouble to think. That only tells the richness the movie has.

Overall, the movie simply rocks. It has everything you look in a film for entertainment. You may have to shed some inhibitions if you are a bit conservative but remember the sacrifice worth it, as the movie breaths life! Go for it!!

My rating: 4.5 stars