Bring Back The Vamp

Bollywood is ready to refurbish retro with Once Upon a Time in Mumbai. There’s something strangely captivating about retro, especially when you hope to catch a cabaret on screen once again. Last time around Kareena tried to emulate Helen it fell flat. This time Gauhar Khan will try to shake her booty like Helen did. But really, it’s high time we had a peppier Bollywood and brought back the bad girls on screen that seduce, titillate and run away with other woman’s husbands. Oh wait, is that the heroine now, you say? Naah, they can’t hold a candle to the Helens, Bindus, Aruna Iranis or Lalita Pawars. They are just wannabe avant-garde actresses – too darn boring.
These were times when mainstream women actors didn’t dare to be provocative or unconventional. But Helen did. She was so good at it that she stole the show from many big names in her films and is still referred to as the best cabaret dancer – ever. She was 40+ when she danced to Ye Mera dil pyar ka deewanai in Don at a time when the younger actresses were just testing the water to move to daring. The song remains iconic till date. At half her age, Kareena looked like a stripped down version without the fire.
Check out these rare photos of Helen on the Twitsnaps link.



This weekend, largely to get the taste of football out of my mouth, I watched Kati Patang. Yes that 70s one, produced and directed by Shakti Samanta, his second with Rajesh Khanna in the lead after the blockbuster Aradhana.
Can you ever forget Bindu playing Shabnam, lover to Bollywood’s go-to villain at the time, Prem Chopra. The slinky number, Mera Naam Shabnam, is quite easily the highlight of the film. And this was just the beginning for her. She was enthralling in Imtihaan as a seductress. Bindu took unconventionality to a new high playing a nymphomaniac in Hawas in 1974. It earned her a Filmfare Nomination for the Best Supporting Actress. In 2010, Hawas has nothing to offer. I would relegate it to a sleazy film with regressive portrayals of women, though the music by Usha Khanna and the 70s psychedelic funk is still fun. What made Bindu act in Hawas I don’t know- but as Kamini Singh with her uncontrollable urges- Hawas was Bindu’s film.
Aruna Irani, Padma Khanna, Silk Smitha, Prema Narayan, Kalpana Iyer … these actors were largely stereotyped and objectified, hardly ever given their due. Then somewhere the vamp metamorphosed to the item girl. In the 80s, the song Ek do teen from Tezaab was added to the film as an afterthought. The song propelled its lead female actor, Madhuri Dixit to super-stardom and industry insiders believe it’s what started the item number trend.  So the vamp became the ‘item’ only now, the item is the lead actor herself.
So Priyanka Chopra unabashedly seduced and trapped Akshay Kumar in Aitraz, but hasn’t been seen in a similar role since. Kajol, never one to stick to the tried and tested, experimented with a negative role in Gupt.
The lead female actor is now kitschy, lacking character with bits of negativity and sexuality added. Aishwarya’s character in Raavan is hot for Abhishek’s Beera. So there’s lots of creamy skin show but who is she? Not out-an-out seductive, but flimsy and unbelievable.
In Once Upon… Gauhar Khan will enact a Helen-like performance, shaking to Parda.  The song has references to Helen’s chartbuster tracks like Duniya Mein Logon Ko (Apna Desh) and  Piya Tu Ab To Aaja (Caravan).
It’s a tall order but I hope she does a somewhat decent job of it and remind movie makers that the vamp is needs to come back. Just give her a make over.
PS: Helen will be seen again (and yes she will dance) on screen in Sanjay Sharma’s Donno Y…Na Jaane Kyo. The film will release next month. Zeenat makes an appearance too and in the true style of these unconventional ladies, Donno Y…is supposed to be India’s answer to Brokeback Mountain. Yes, Bollywood’s first ‘serious’ gay flick.