Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Dark & Lovely - 2

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Yesterday I was talking about the senior Yadav MP from Bihar who found himself waxing eloquent in the Lok Sabha about the body and skin of South Indian ladies attributing their lure to him to their training in dance.

Well, he is as innocent of my real South Indian ladies as I am about the village belles of his Bihar. His knowledge is gleaned from the few Hindi movies he must have watched with ogle-boggles in which several South Indian actresses have made it good.

Last night I was reading a review of a recently published book titled:

"Unforgettable: The Iconic Women of South Indian Cinema"

In it there is this curious fact that many South Indian actresses made it good in Bollywood but not South Indian actors. The list of such actresses is formidable including oldies like  TR Rajkumari, Padmini, B. Saroja Devi, Jamuna, Jayalalita, Jaya Prada, Sridevi and Vyjayantimala; and later ones like Hema Malini, Waheeda Rehman, Rekha, Vidya Balan, not to talk of perhaps Aishwarya Rai.

The reviewer writes:

"...female stars from the South look like goddesses who seem to have jumped out of calendars hanging in their living rooms. Most of these women, apart from being very talented performers, have voluptuous figures and incredibly beautiful eyes. They mesmerise the northern male. The fact that almost all of them have trained as classical dancers also helps since singing and dancing are essential components of our films."

The reviewer is a Patel. What is ok for a Guju in print is not ok for a Yadav in speech in parliament.

He also writes:

"...a north Indian filmgoer's idea of good looks does not include the southern male --- medium height, dark features..."

Well, times have changed a bit with the advent of the youtube.  

The young chap at the header of this post had his fifteen minutes of fame not only in South India but across Indian and abroad.

Something there for tomorrow...


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