The Dirty Picture: What Mamis' called Dirty, Mamas' called "Deity"!

Well before the movie released, a lot of expectations and hype was built across the world. Releasing steamy stills and referring it to as a biopic, raised more than just eye-brows. The movie appeared to give the much needed closure to her fans and devotees who were grappling to understand and come to terms with her death. The media houses around the world, including BBC couldn’t ignore the call. On the day of the release their website boldly and bluntly reported “The Dirty Picture”, as a biopic on South Indian Cinema’s Sex Siren: Silk Smitha.  So, who makes picture dirty is it the woman, her men or the media?

Arrival of Mo(a)nsoon

Scientist, Astronomers, and Meteorologist, none of them could foresee or predict the arrival of this new star and a new weather pattern aka “the moansoon” in the South Indian Cinema. Silk turned housewives and their husbands desperate!

She arrived at a time when South Indian film industry was still conservative, dry and Chennai mamas’ still loved their un-sizzling mornings with carnatic music, mallipoo, filter coffee, and “The Hindu”, while strictly kept their flings outside their home turf (Cabaret, Marc Polo, and Times of India). What aunty’s called dirty the uncles called Deity!

Love for Silk: A family affair

Viagra was still a few light years away, but her arrival put so much of pressure on Mamis’ to improve their soft skills and bed manners. Mamis’ feared a new plague had arrived in their married life and felt the need to fight and protect their husbands. But when they realized their better halves never strayed but ploughed the pillows, burrowed themselves between the mattresses, and stayed satisfied with visual imagery, they put their shields and swords to rest and rust. Bed rooms were now both enter(s)tainment.

It is not just the Mamis’ who loved silk, Mamas’ and their sons too loved Silk! Silk was omnipresent and omnipotent across the globe and across all age groups. Fathers smuggled pictures of Silk into their bedrooms and stored them under the mattress (not just for rainy days but for shiny days too), while sons discovered their fathers’ adultery/fantasy/festish, and powered their arms as well as their puberty. Silk seemed a cheap alternative and free treatment for erectile dysfunction without any side-effects.

Saraswati or Sex Symbol?

Didn’t matter if you studied, arts, engineering, medicine or science, the syllabus was same across every college in India– Silk Smitha! Every hostel room had images of this visual Viagra pasted behind the doors. Students graduated from one year to the next, while she stayed behind every door in all the rooms and took care of all fresher (read as virgins). Students scored their women teachers with the same vengeance their answer sheets were and none of teachers came close to Silk!

If the old man’s paint brush could have added beauty to her curves and cleavage, this Sex Goddess would have blessed him with a “Barath Ratna”. What Saraswati couldn’t get MF Hussain, Silk could have got him, but the man missed it.

With this preamble let’s analyze what popular reviewers haven’t covered about “The Dirty Picture”.

I felt it was a great opportunity to narrate the story of a voluptuous and vulnerable woman who set the bedrooms and box-office on fire and who suddenly vanished one morning leaving the Mamas and their sons in a permanent state of erectile deflation.

1. To ones dismay the first slide in the movie reads “All Characters in this movie are fictional and any resemblance to real life characters is just a coincidence” takes the steam away. May be the Director and Producer wanted an escape route from lawsuits, while they astutely enjoyed the coverage when media houses referred to it as a biopic. Even if they took the fictional route, the Ekta Kapoor could have narrated the pain behind being both voluptuous and vulnerable in a better way. The voluptuous part came out very well, but the vulnerable part turned script vulnerable. Sadly this biopic was more myopic.
2. Since the film was set in the 80s the borrowed tune “adra adra naaku nokka” didn’t gel with the time period. “Pon meni uruguthey” would have been a better choice to recall the bygone era and tease the uncles and their grown-up sons.
3. The first half of the screenplay quickly shows the growing up of Silk and her attainment of stardom, but the second half swells and sags like Vidya Balan’s adipose tissue.
4. Indian directors must learn to use powerful visuals, power of actor to emote than filling the scenes with dialogues.
5. Towards the end there was a beautiful shot where Silk looks at her reflection in dirty water and that moment could have been elaborated to capture her vulnerable side. There could have been a conversation with her alter-ego to show her pains and stains. But the opportunity was sadly ignored.
6. What Directors achieved to convey in Black Swan and Fashion, this movie failed to convey. At the end of the movie her suicide still remains a mystery, her emotions, desires, disappointments and feelings still uncovered and unclear. The director could have used the last 15 mins to bring her dark side to light. Sadly the society will continue to call Silk, the Dark-side of creation.

One could see strands of Silk running across the fabric in Hollywood and Bollywood. The lead characters in the movie Black Swan, Fashion and The Dirty Picture were all struggling to find balance at peak of their stardom. Their lives seemed brittle without a man, they wandered from one port to another like an anchor-less ship, and there was no family to play the role of fog-horn and safety net.

Are women built to handle the perils of being popular and celebrated? Are single women more vulnerable than single men when it comes to power, name, money, sex, etc.? Do families and partners provide the anchorage and invisible safety net against suicides?


All the yester-year uncles are now grandfathers, their sons are now fathers, who can share their experiences, but sadly none came to Silk's rescue or narrate her share of struggles and wiggles. So who makes the picture dirty is it the woman, her stardom or the men? Keep thinking....and you decide!