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In the formulae-ridden film world, only a handful films have been made on film icons so far. Most of these films took up issues like financial mismanagement by actors, how they got cheated or exploited, their string of broken relationships; and how behind the pomp and show of the tinsel town, they lived lonely lives and met with tragic ends. Often their heart-breaking affairs and dwindling career graphs took them towards the path of self-destruction. The common theme in such films is that despite their stardom, these superstars had no control over their lives.
Milan Luthria’s The Dirty Picture, starring Vidya Balan, a biopic (film based on biography) on the life of sensational actress Silk Smitha, is set against the backdrop of the South Indian film industry. On the screen, Silk breathed fire and brimstone but deep inside her heart, she craved for true love, which always eluded her. In a bout of depression, she committed suicide at the age of 36 when her stardom nosedived. In the film, the sordid reality of Smitha’s life sinks into her character on the screen. The film focuses on the tragedy behind the mask of film artists, who provide entertainment to thousands of cine buffs but die a lonely death. The film neither justifies nor criticises Silk Smitha’s life but gives a glimpse of it. Guru Dutt’s magnum opus Kaagaz Ke Phool had distinct autobiographical notes and the intensity with which the director bared his soul discomforted the audience. The film was a masterpiece. Suresh Sinha (Guru Dutt) was a famous film director, whose marriage was on the verge of breaking up because his wife and her rich family looked down upon his profession. The film came close to capturing the highs and heartbreaks of the tinsel town. As long as Suresh Sinha retained his Midas touch, his films took him to the pinnacle of glory, but the moment his films started flopping at the boxoffice, he was condemned by the public and he ends up an extra in the same studio where he was once the king. He dies in an empty studio in a director’s chair — a forgotten genius. Both Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool were intrinsically about Dutt’s relationship with fame. In Pyaasa, his alter ego rejected fame, albeit only after getting it while Kaagaz Ke Phool showed Suresh Sinha’s frustration when he became a failure.
In Shahid Latif’s Sone Ki Chidiya, the orphaned Lakshmi (Nutan) was unwanted by her relatives. When she became a filmstar, her relatives vie with one another to exploit her new-found earning capacity. She fell in love with Amar — a journalist who ditched her when he realised that her wealth was controlled by her greedy family. The film stigmatised the way the film industry exploits its workforce. Lakshmi met Shrikant (Balraj Sahni), a radical poet whom she idolised for years and fell in love with him. Her brothers offer Shrikant money to abandon her. He accepts the money but donates it to the junior artists’ welfare fund. Lakshmi believes herself to be betrayed yet again. She realises the truth at the end of the film and rejoins Shrikant. Nutan entered into the skin of the character so unobtrusively that the audience thought that it was a chunk from her real life. It was, indeed, because in real life Nutan had sued her mother for misappropriating her funds. Shyam Benegal’s Bhumika was based on the autobiography of Marathi- Hindi actress Hansa Wadkar. In the film, Smita Patil played Usha — the heroine whose search for happiness is strewn with several broken relationships with four men she met at various points in her life, including her husband, a narcissistic male co-star, effete filmmaker and the land-owner whose second wife she became. Many questions of women’s oppression are raised although tragically Usha ends up identifying herself with the self-sacrificing heroine, defeated by the patriarchal mores that have weighed down her since early childhood. In the New Theatres’ Abhinetri — Kamla (Kanan Devi) was the star of the Ruby Theatres owned by her guardian Maheshbabu. Narendra (Pahadi Sanyal) was equally popular star in the rival Bina Theatre, which he abandoned to join the Ruby repertory when he fell in love with Kamla. They married each other. Narender, then, showed his true colours and forced Kamla to give up her acting career.
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