In the film The Dirty Picture, director Milan Luthria recreates 1980s India by borrowing the look of films made during that period. As the blockbusterOnce Upon a Time in Mumbai (2010) suggested, such a play with nostalgia is the director's forte. This time around, the immensely popular song 'Ooh la la' ensured that the promise of such nostalgic teleportation to the eighties would be there in The Dirty Picture. Loosely based on the life of the sensational South Indian starlet Vijayalakshmi, popularly known as Silk Smitha (1960-96), the film traces a village girl's journey to the city, to stardom, to freedom and, eventually, to a tragic suicide. Among the film's strengths are not only its rendering of nostalgia and the choice of a story to tell, but also its portrayal of desire.
Much has already been said about the film's depiction of excess – the sexually charged gyrations, matkas and jhatkas, intonations and gestures – and of the central character's sheer boldness, as played by Vidya Balan. What have frequently been overlooked, though, are The Dirty Picture's understated references to cinema itself, as a medium that evokes desire and fantasy. Consider a scene in which Silk walks through the dark interiors of a cinema theatre while wearing her sunglasses, hoping to watch her own first performance in a song-and-dance number. If the darkness inside the cinema hall helps in suspending disbelief and embracing the 'copy' more than, or as if it were, the 'real', the sunglasses further suggest that Silk, by already considering herself a star, wants to retain the dream of stardom – she does not want to leave it, or perhaps she wants to have a dream within a dream. The film's establishing shot shows a small girl, Reshma (yet to become Silk), being rebuked for climbing up a ladder, thus foreshadowing the dreamscape of heightened ambitions about to unfold.