The Dirty Picture – Film Review

‘The Dirty Picture’ has all the contents for a commercial cinema to keep the audience engaged for 2 hour 20 minutes, and believe me, it’s unquestionably not a biopic, and for sure the film doesn’t feel like a documentary. The makers of the movie wanted to achieve three things with this film, which are – “entertainment, entertainment, entertainment”. Today’s viewers want entertainment, and the movie just provides us with that.

As we previously know, the movie is inspired by the life of ‘Silk’ Smitha – the sex siren who rocked the south film industry during the eighties and the early nineties. Thus the name of the lead character in the movie, ‘Silk’, but I believe the similarities just end here. Reshma aka ‘Silk’ is a girl from a small town in Tamil Nadu who runs off to Madras just before the day she is to get married to complete her ambition of becoming an actress. But as destiny has it, she is unable to garner any opportunities of becoming a lead lady and ends up being a ‘sex siren’ and a ‘vamp’ in movies. The rest of the story is about how her career reaches new heights and how it falls to unseen depths, as she becomes addicted to alcohol and begins to age.

The primary cast of the movie includes names like Vidya Balan, Naseeruddin Shah, Emraan Hashmi and Tusshar Kapoor.

Naseeruddin Shah plays the role of a ‘Southern Superstar’ and he fits the bill absolutely. Tusshar Kapoor plays Nasseruddin Shah’s brother and a budding writer who falls for ‘Silk’. His character in the movie is a very clever one and he gels into his role well. Coming to Emraan Hashmi, one has to say that his acting only keeps improving. Emraan Hashmi’s voice plays a crucial role in the movie as he is also narrating the story and his hatred for ‘Silk’. His encounters with Vidya Balan are simply outstanding.

But of all the cast, the credit undeniably has to go the lead lady Vidya Balan. There was Parineeta, then was Ishqiya, then No One Killed Jessica and now it’s The Dirty Picture. One has to say that she’s gotta have guts to play such an bold character that smokes, drinks, shows oodles of cleavage and utters filthy one-liners. Vidya Balan’s efforts have to be supremely appreciated for she manages to pull off everything that the character requires with supreme confidence while not making it look vulgar. For those of you who were thinking that Vidya Balan was risking her career playing the role of ‘Silk’ and she doesn’t have the ‘oomph factor’ of Silk Smitha, just watch the film and decide for yourself what the lady is capable of.

The rest of the cast is just as convincing.

After Vidya Balan, the movie belongs to the writer, Rajat Arora. His story, screenplay and dialogues are simply excellent. It is tough to write an entertaining movie inspired by the true story of a ‘sex goddess’ who ended her life unexpectedly. But Rajat Arora does a wonderful job, and a few one-liners and dialogues of his are sure going to have the audience in splits.

The camera work and editing are polished and suit the mood of the movie. ‘Oo la la’ is already playing on many lips, and the background is wonderful.

Lastly, the credit has to go to Milan Luthria. This veteran filmmaker is just continuing his form from his last outing (Once Upon a Time in Mumbai). He succeeded in extracting brilliant performances from all his actors and the lead lady particularly.

Overall, It is worthy to watch for full entertainment.