The daughter of yesteryear Bollywood actor Jeetendra and the queen of Hindi television soaps Ekta Kapoor is making a biopic on the life of the yester years south Indian sexy siren Silk Smitha.
Reliable sources say Vidya Balan will live the life of Silk Smitha in ‘The Dirty Picture’ directed by Milan Luthria. But there was also news saying Mallika Sherawat will essay the role of Silk. Either way the casting will have its own limitations. If Mallika is not expressive Vidya will not be able to match the oomph factor of the seductive Smitha. But the role will be an author backed role and will be as rewarding as challenging to both Vidya Balan and the actor and the director Milan Luthria.
The film will be made in Hindi and given the standing of Silk Smitha even to day it will surely be dubbed in all the possible languages. When it releases in Tamil that will be one of he rarest genre the biopic.
In Tamil we haven’t seen too many biopic films in its almost 90 years of talkies. There were occasional movies that were called biopic but weren’t as honest as it should be.
A Biopic or a biographical motion picture is said to be a film that truthfully dramatizes the life of an actual person or people. But a biopic is also confused with films which claim they are based on a true story or historical. Biopic attempts to comprehensively tell a person’s life story or at least the most historically important years of their lives.
The reasons for not having many biopic films in Tamil may be many but the two important ones are these. First our people are not willing to risk libel. The characters portrayed in a biopic are actual people whose actions and characteristics are known and seen. Any difference of opinion is bound to create trouble for the film maker. One of the best known biopic in Tamil ‘Iruvar’ experienced the effects of a biopic.
‘Iruvar’ written and directed by Mani Ratnam dealt with a very sensitive subject of the lives of modern Tamil Nadu’s most prominent icons MGR and Karunanidhi and their tryst with cinema and politics. The movie invited criticism from both the camps alleging the movie is not honest. Mani has also faltered in some places like casting and depicting personal lives of the political icons. On account of this various parties staged demonstrations to prevent theaters from showing the movie. The movie failed at the popularity level but is regarded as one of the best work ever.
In a culture where bipolarity is too severe and serious to eccentricity, a true biopic may not be possible for some more time. Even the much touted biopic ‘Periyar’ turned out to be a montage of incidents and events to please all factions. Many did not even know there was a film on Kamarajar.
Another reason for the lack of confidence in the directors to attempt a biopic is the non-availability of willing actors. Biopics are considered to be the most demanding for actors and actresses in terms of hard work. Even when we had trained actors like Sivaji Ganesan who were from the stages there weren’t too many biopics. One Veerapandiya Kattabomman or a Kappalotiya Thamizhan are the only notable biopic if we agree to call it a biopic. Even these were not true to self but dramatized versions.
Bu there was too many films that called itself biopic or based on true story in Tamil. From Malaiyur Manbattiyan to Sri Raghavendirar to the recent Guru the “true life’ was used more as marketing gimmick. Also regularly people announce biopic projects only to shelve it later for either want of good talent or truthful script.
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