WITH more than a hint of cleavage and more than a suggestion of sex, Vidya Balan turns it on in The Dirty Picture like few other Bollywood heroines have ever managed to do. A t2 list of power women on the Bolly screen who have used their bodies as weapons of mass attraction. can you add to the list? Tell t2@abp.in
VIDYA BALAN IN THE DIRTY PICTURE
Vidya’s Silk knows the power that her body wields and she uses it uninhibitedly and unerringly. She lays herself bare (Vidya shows more cleavage in an hour than most leading ladies have shown in their whole careers) on the ogle buffet, manipulating men with a wink or a glance. Silk is willing to do all it takes — from writhing in front of the camera to indulging in a quickie in the backseat of a car. She taunts and she tit-illates, she rules the box office and causes bed-lam in the world of men.
BIPASHA BASU IN JISM
The dusky Ballygunge bombshell dropped a bomb with her bare-back seductress act in her debut film. Bipasha’s Sonia was an irresistible cold-hearted schemer who used her killer curves to lure men. Playing with her eyes as much as her body, Bipasha and John Abraham’s lovemaking scene in Jism finds a place in Channel 4’s list of the top 100 sexy scenes of all time.
REKHA IN UTSAV
Playing the sensual courtesan Vasantasena, Rekha took screen eroticism to a new high in the Girish Karnad-directed Utsav. Using her body as a totem of sensuality, Vasantasena lures a string of men, with the young Charudutt — Shekhar Suman in his first film — falling prey to her charms. Two erotic sequences, er, stand out: he slowly stripping her of her jewellery; he, she and soap suds in the bathing scene.
konkona sensharma & Raima Sen IN MIRCH
This 2010 film looked at what women want — in bed. Themed on a woman’s right to have sex — and refuse it — this Vinay Shukla film comprised four shorts starring Bong belles Konkona Sensharma and Raima Sen. If the first was about how a wife convinces her husband that she needs to have sex with another man for her husband’s long life, the second dealt with a queen making love to another man even while the king watched. The third focused on a wife having an affair to teach her philandering husband a lesson, while the fourth was about a wife fooling the husband into believing that she was at a seedy hotel to catch him in the act! Woman power, Bong-style!
PAOLI DAM IN CHATRAK
She may have gone under the sheets and bared a bit for previous films, but Tolly trendsetter Paoli Dam truly shed her inhibitions for the yet-to-release Chatrak. Directed by Sri Lankan filmmaker Vimukthi Jayasundara, the dusky actress engaged in an oral sex scene in the nude with co-star Anubrata doing all the hard work. This is what Paoli had told t2 about taking it lying down: “In the scene, the girl is getting all the pleasure.” The downside? You may never get to see the scene and the film.
SHABANA AZMI & NANDITA DAS IN FIRE
Director Deepa Mehta made her central protagonists — neglected by their respective husbands — turn to each other, mentally and physically. Playing sisters-in-law, Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das turned it on — under the mosquito net. Condemned at the time of release, Fire is today widely regarded as a breakthrough film on female empowerment. With basic instincts playing a vital role
ZEENAT AMAN IN SATYAM SHIVAM SUNDARAM
Wet, wet, wet.... Zeenat Aman — easily the boldest actress of her generation — in an itsy-bitsy choli and a navel-flaunting sari in this Raj Kapoor flesh fest. Suffering from a facial disfigurement, Zeenat’s Roopa seduced Shashi Kapoor — and the audience — with those curves. As the camera caressed every inch of her body, Zeenat scored with that dare-bare cleavage in the Bhor bhaye song. And the steamy kiss with Shashi remains one of Bollywood’s boldest yet.
MANDAKINI IN RAM TERI GANGA MAILI
Yet another Raj Kapoor film. Yet anotherwell-endowed leading lady on a titillation trip. Mandakini in nothing but a flimsy white sari under a raging waterfall, baring more of herself than any heroine in mainstream Bollywood had (or since has), is the enduring image of this watershed 1985 romp. She followed it up within an hour with a breastfeeding scene.
INDIRA VARMA & SARITA CHOUDHURY IN KAMASUTRA
As the saying goes, Mira Nair caused ripples by showing nipples. This visually compelling tale of female empowerment through sex and lesbian love saw Indira Varma and Sarita Choudhury play childhood friends wrestling for the same man. Lovemaking was central to this film that celebrated female sexuality as a healing and liberating force.
NANDANA SEN IN RANG RASIYA
Ketan Mehta’s historical piece focusing on the life of painter Raja Ravi Varma has Nandana playing Sugandha, a sensuous devdasi who is, at heart, a child-woman. Trained to be irresistible to men, Nandana’s Sugandha goes topless in the film, taking a brave stand to bare her body for the sake of art. Rang Rasiya has been languishing in the cans owing to distribution problems, but it remains a significant film on woman power.
MALLIKA SHERAWAT IN MURDER
If her 17 kisses in her debut film Khawahish set the boldness ball rolling, Mallika Sherawat in Murder went where no Bollywood heroine had gone before. Cheating on her husband and neglecting her son as she hooked up with a former lover, Mallika got down and dirty everywhere — bed to couch, backseat of car to building ledge. The sexually liberated Bolly heroine was born with this one.
KIMI KATKAR IN TARZAN
The sex symbol of the ’80s bared it all in her debut film playing Jane to Hemant Birje’s Tarzan. Prancing around in bare essentials, Kimi Katkar gave Tarzan — and the men in the audience — sleepless nights. Who can forget a wide-eyed Birje exploring her body with his fingers and the erotic bathing scene in the pond?
