New Delhi: First, every one calm down. Months of orgasmic outpouring of praises for actor Vidya Balan from admirers for her portrayal of 80s soft porn star Silk Smitha, has reached a fevered pitch after her latest film 'Kahaani' was released. A word of caution before you prematurely put her on the crowded pedestal of India's finest method actors. Don't.
Vidya, though imaginative and intelligent, is dangerously close to being slotted as Indian cinema's feminist icon. A look at her career only supports the argument that she has filled a position left vacant by Tabu and before her, Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil. The bitter irony in Vidya's case is that the chauvinist mainstream media keeps referring to her as the fourth Khan after the release of The Dirty Picture, despite the strongly woman-centric roles she has played over the last few years.
It could be because the expectations of Indian audiences from their leading ladies have been tempered over time by the schmaltzy roles they have been forced to play in appalling films. Add to that the perception that art films and the theatre are incubators for great actors. All the more reason why Vidya needed a mainstream hit like The Dirty Picture.
In the stampede led by Bodyguard, Golmaal, Patiala House and Tees Maar Khan, sensibilities of Indian audiences are knocked to the ground and repeatedly stamped on. So when rare films such as the Dirty Picture or Kahaani come along with a well-thought-out sketch for each character, Indian audiences and critics go overboard with their praise. Which is, I feel, what has happened to Vidya.
Vidya has found her fame but what about legacy?
Gone are the days of Prem, Raj and Rahul. Vidya plays 'Vidya' in two of her most prominent films, a rare privilege reserved for stars of some standing.
If Aamir Khan's career can be distinctly divided in to pre and post Lagaan phases, Vidya's will be assessed post The Dirty Picture. When you get down to it, Silk Smitha isn't a difficult role to play. It is much less nuanced than Shabana Azmi's role as the hurt wife in Masoom or Smita Patil's spirited portrayal as a sex worker in Mandi. Kalki Koechlin's That Girl in Yellow Boots and Shaitan had brilliant performances unfairly overlooked by audiences.
But did Vidya deserve her Best Actress National Award? Yes. Few actors would risk their credibility portraying an unglamorous star living in the shadow of infamy. The belly fat was real and so were the layers she brought to the character. But then came Kahaani and I was forced to take a re-look at her films to assess her latest. When she made her entry in the film Salaam-e-Ishq as John Abraham's girlfriend, her fresh innocence was startlingly similar to her character in Lage Raho Munnabhai. Apart from the disastrous Heyy Babyy and Eklavya, most of her films blur into each other with the common theme of a woman's search for redemption. That is never a good thing for an actor.
Is Vidya India's Hillary Swank?
We make heroes of any actor who puts a bit of preparation into his or her role prior to filming, almost as if he was doing his audience a huge favour by learning Hindi, flying a plane or noting the body language of a paraplegic/dyslexic. Isn't he supposed to?
No one knows this better than Meryl Streep, considered one of the world's finest actors and nominated for an Academy Award 17 times before winning her second Best Actress award for The Iron Lady, a biopic of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Known for her obsessive need to perfect any role, Streep can imitate any dialect and is said to have sat through a session at the House of Commons to observe British MPs while preparing for Iron Lady.
Vidya prepared for Dirty Picture how any dedicated actor would for a killer role and how Nargis, Smita, Shabana, Madhubala and Meena Kumari prepared before the media boom. Her success as a bankable actor who can carry a film on her shoulder will tempt her to keep accepting such roles in future until they become her comfort zone.
For the love of cinema, do not make premature heroes of our performers. More often than not it typecasts them in specific genres that they spend their lives living up to (Shah Rukh Khan, Govinda, Akshay Kumar) and kills their instinct to experiment.
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