The Dirty Picture

Inspired by the life of the late Silk Smitha, an actress noted for her erotic roles, 'The Dirty Picture' is decent biopic on the late sex-symbol. The main reason why this biopic works, is because of the On-Screen Silk, played terrificly by Vidya Balan. She stands out!

'The Dirty Picture' is a tale of pain, desire, ambition, struggle, and darkness. It's about Silk & her entire journey. It's a complete look at the rise & fall on the late south-siren.

Cinematically, 'The Dirty Picture' is a decent effort, that has enough potential to earn itself a viewing. Of course, the Second-Hour could've been better, but otherwise, there is no major flaw in here to point out. Rajat Aroraa's Screenplay is generally good, but it definitely could've been stronger in the Second-Hour. A special mention for the superb dialogues. Milan Luthria's Direction is passable. Cinematography, Editng & Art Design, are mention-worthy. Music by Vishal-Shekhar, is good

Performance-Wise: Vidya stands out from Scene A to Z. She delivers a terrific performance as Silk. This is Her Bravest & Best Performance to date. Emraan Hashmi is first-rate. Naseeruddin Shah is his usual self, while Tusshar Kapoor deserved more footage. Rajesh Sharma & Anju Mahendru are simply fantastic in supporting roles.

On the whole, 'The Dirty Picture' is a decent effort. Watch it for Vidya's Performance!

This movie was extensively marketed and apart from the sleaze, also appeared to be a promising story and biography. The final output is quite disappointing.

The first half is enjoyable with Vidya Balan playing a "devil may care" character, some funny double meaning dialogues and sequences and general cheerfulness of the movie.

The second half is pathetic. The transition of Vidya from a successful star to a self-destructed wreck is not at all convincing and Balan fails to impress. The story is very patchy and disorderly. The end is specially an overkill with the bridal dress and the sleeping pills. The kind of character Vidya plays wouldn't act like a helpless and pitiable character of 1960s. I guess the only good thing about the second half is the attention paid to Vidya's makeup - the eye bags, clothes that suggest many extra pounds and the paunch.

As for the other aspects of the movie, Tusshar looks mentally retarded as usual. He should probably only play mentally challenged characters as he wouldn't need to act much and would fit right in. Whoever wrote the dialogues tried to hit a six off each delivery. He needs to understand that each dialogue can't and needn't be a punchline. Emraan Hashmi should specifically get someone to write dialogues for him that are not always senseless metaphors.

Overall - 5/ 10 rating. Watch the first half for some lighthearted fun and a few laughs. Don't bother with the second half.

Said to be based on the tragic life of Silk Smitha, The Dirty Picture tells the story of Reshma, an ambitious village belle from the South, who aspires to make it big in the movies. Through this character, we also get to see a rather satirical take on Bollywood's 1980s, which is known to be the most dreadful period for mainstream Hindi films of that time. At first Reshma strives to prove her talent as an actress, but as soon as she learns how showbiz really works, she realises that the only way she can make her dream come true is by using her sexuality and exposing her body, and that's where she turns into Silk. The film industry is portrayed as rather sleazy in the film; casting couch is a standard phenomenon, artistry is a word mostly uncommon to filmmakers and audiences. That said, even though I don't buy it all, it is an amusing watch. The dialogue is witty, the art direction is fantastic, and the film is just too colourful to skip in spite of its faulty script. But then, everything is put aside when it comes to the lead role as played by Vidya Balan, who represents everything that this picture is about and everything that's good about it.

Having seen her spectacular performances in Paa, Ishqiya, and No One Killed Jessica, I'd had huge expectations from Vidya Balan. Little did I know that she would just transcend them all with her dazzling performance in this film in a role which many actresses would either fight for (mostly in retrospect) or shy away from. Forgoing any trace of whatever she was ever known for, Balan just becomes Silk in a fearlessly uninhibited performance that is replete with energy, authenticity, spontaneity, confidence, and a never-seen-before sensuality. She's unabashedly sexy, charmingly vivacious, awfully attractive and just too smashing hot, and the way she delivers those witty, provocative lines is simply awesome. And if that isn't enough, that turns out to be just one side of hers, because Balan brings a great deal of depth and understanding to this complex character. There's a lot of pain, struggle and conflict in her portrayal—something that a lesser actress could have easily missed—and it often ends up being a moving portrait of loneliness. This is a class act which reaffirms Balan's position as one of the finest actresses of our time.

Even though the show belongs to its leading lady, the supporting actors get nice parts to play, and they handle them well enough. Naseeruddin Shah offers a wonderfully spoofy act as a caricature Bollywood hero of the 1980s, that of a middle-aged man that is idolised and loved and still plays parts of much younger heroes on-screen, romancing young girls who could well be his daughters and later playing their sons. Emraan Hashmi is very good in a subdued performance, but Tusshar Kapoor is not as convincing, though good enough. All the rest come and go without leaving much of an impression. I liked the film's music, particularly that "Ooh La La" number, which epitomises the style of the 1980s and which was well presented on-screen. To sum it up, The Dirty Picture is definitely a watchable film, but it's never a particularly convincing one. I somehow wished the story had more depth, and I often found the script too simplistic. But leaving its flaws aside, there's one thing about The Dirty Picture, which is the real thing, and that's, as said, Vidya Balan, whose performance makes every flaw in the film easier to forgive.

A fat lady from a humble background struggles and succeeds into making waves for her seductive moves in the silver screen. The above sentence it self creates a lot of hype and curiosity when transformed into silver screen. But not all films are equally great on screen as it is on paper. The Dirty Picture is one such film which could have been far better if the writer chose to be more risky like Silk herself. Silk Smitha is known to almost all Indians of different age groups who have satisfied their inner fantasies through the videos of this dusky seductress of 80s.Its a huge task in bringing out a character as challenging like Silk who death was as mysterious as her life. Coming to the film let's dissect it to figure out both the extremes. What went right :- Milan Luthria and Rajat Arora were totally successful in recreating the mindless era of 80s. The aging heroes used to play college kids, the settings were outlandish, the songs were bizarre with unique blend of eccentricity in the choreography and over all executions used to be loud with capital "L" – that summarizes the 80s films. All these elements were rightly incorporated in the film. The scene were the aging hero plays the role of college student and the way director says "fine shot sir" reflects the scenario of those times. But within such setting audience used to find entertainment,entertainment and entertainment thus a new star got created. With sensuality and boldness Silk rocked the milieu and rose to peak of stardom very early in her career. The growth of Silk has been portrayed with utmost sincerity and kudos to Luhtria for casting Vidya Balan arguable the Best actress of current bollywood. Rajat Aurora should be applauded for the gutsy dialogs which forms the crux of the film and provides ample 'entertainment" to the janata. The shallowness of 80s is rightly depicted in a subtle manner and evergreen hypocrisy of Indian people has been aptly portrayed. So what went wrong? Probably to provide 'entertainment" more emphasis has been given to the dialog baazi rather than a coherent script. The characters behave in a inconsistent manner. The reason for Abraham's hatred towards Silk is not convincing and neither his change of heart. In fact Luthria's dig on art cinema seems contrived. The narrative falls in the second hour following similar cliché loop. The psychological dip of Silk was shown in a hurried manner which doesn't evoke pathos and climax is one of worst scripted in recent times. What could have been a movement transformed into plain mediocrity. Like his other films Luthria's choice of subject is superb but every time he loses the scope of a masterpiece by playing it to the gallery. Coming to the acting department Naseeruddin Shah was average as aging superstar Surya. He started off in a brilliant way but then seem to be sleep walking throughout the film. Tusshar Kapoor is wasted in a insignificant character and he didn't rise above it either. Emraan Hashmi had a half baked character but he did justice to the role of Abraham who hated Silk. In fact the conversation between Abraham and Silk brought spark on screen whenever they crossed their path. Rajesh Sharma as Silva Ganesh was superb. Earlier seen in small yet significant roles in Khosla ka ghosla and No One Killed Jessica Sharma got a meatier role here. And as the successful producer with a unique mannerism he did better than the male star cast. .. Anju Mahendra was adequate in a small role of gossip journalist.And the main hero of film is Vidya Balan. As mentioned earlier one of the fine actress of our times Vidya simply rocked as Silk. Bold, inhabited oozing out ample amount of flesh and cleavage the territory was unknown for Vidya but she did justice to the role. Credit should be given to costume designer Niharika Khan and Moiz Kapadia, Vidya never looked vulgar even though she was playing dirty. Stupendous job by Bobby Singh, whose lens never tend to titillate the audience. Under able hand and being a powerhouse of talent herself Vidya showed the energy she had within. In every screen she was looking like the character and her voice only added to the gravity. Be it in the sequence when Vidya seduces a crowd in front of the journalist's house or giving a speech in the award function she showed confidence in herself as an actress. She is bound to sweep all award for her role in this film and No one killed Jessica. The other hero of the film is "ooh la la". Sung by Bappida himself the song is a time machine ride to the by gone era. And Pony Verma's choreography had the nostalgic feeling to it. Already breaking the music charts 'ooh la la" is a phenomenon. Sadly overall music album by Vishal-Shekhar is disappointing. Ishq Sufiana may be good to the ear but was totally forced in the film. Overall Vidya Balan excels in a weak film which had the potential to be a classic. But one thing which the film did succeed is showing the hypocrisy of Indian janata who openly criticizes sleaze but enjoys being dirty under close doors. Indeed a slap on the "clean" Indian society.

It is very rare when a director justify vulgarity and in that particular movie. Director Milan Luthria crafted it very intelligently. I hope most of the people will go for sex oriented movie but I bet they will go again for a fine movie. The speech of Vidya at Award Ceremony Scene was the peak of the movie and real subject. A female actress dominate in a movie with 03 main heroes with a big name Naseeruddin Shah, popular one Emran Hashmi. Vidya handle all exposing material with a grace and style and i think from that movie she will have her new Identity O Lala. Perhaps this is not the first time which depict the behind the scene of film industry but this time it is really fascinating that there is no casting couch type material and struggle is very correct. Go and watch once on this review and you will go again on you own.