[12Dvop4I]

First things first – kudos to the cast and crew for bringing out a film like this! ‘The Dirty Picture’ has all the ingredients of a commercial cinema to keep the audience engaged for 140 minutes, and believe me, it’s definitely not a biopic, and for sure the movie doesn’t feel like a documentary. The makers of the film wanted to accomplish three things with this film, which are – “entertainment, entertainment, entertainment”. Today’s audience wants entertainment, and the film just provides us with that.

Synopsis: As we already know, the film 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 film, ‘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 fulfill her ambition of becoming an actress. But as fate 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 films. 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.

Cast and Performances: The primary cast of the film 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 perfectly. Tusshar Kapoor plays Nasseruddin Shah’s brother and a budding writer who falls for ‘Silk’. His character in the film is a very subtle 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 film as he is also narrating the story and his hatred for ‘Silk’. His encounters with Vidya Balan are simply superb.

But of all the cast, the credit definitely 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 audacious 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 panache 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 movie and decide for yourself what the lady is capable of.

The rest of the cast is just as convincing.

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

The camera work and editing are slick and suit the mood of the film. ‘Oo la la’ is already playing on many lips, and the background is perfect.

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 especially.