I've been following all of Filmi Girl's posts on the emerging trend of being really skinny in Bollywood these days. It really annoys me that there's no normal size heroines anymore as they've all decided to slim down Deepika style and let their ribs poke out! Perhaps I maybe harking back to the days of oldie cinema when the heroines had some flesh and a round tummy but we didn't poke at them before unless we were Baburao Patel! So here's a list and a rant of some of my favorite heroines of the yore and now that just scream:Healthy and Gorgeous, while the Deepika's and Kareena's who promote an unhealthy weight for Indian women to aspire to.
1. Hema Malini - I just love her dancing skills, she looked great in any outfit but to me she exuded a sexy heroine because nobody looked at her tummy when she was performing a dance and she still drew in the male fans that swooned over her curvaceous hips. She was South Indian and loved her food and her Dharam. Its quite sad nowadays that whenever a Southie heroine comes to Bollywood they have to slim down because they look toooo chunky for audiences! UGHHH
2. Vyjanthimala - Another lovely South Indian heroine who looked beautiful and lovely when doing some fabulous dancing, and there were no bones picked against her for having a lovely round face and tummy. Her body was probably the average size of a woman today as it was back then and even in her biography which i read she had a voracious appetite which didnt hinder her dancing or how the audience viewed her. In fact, my sleazy yet lovably Blobby Raj Kapoor did ample justice to her beauty in Sangam, she looked hot in a swimsuit and did the striptease to "Mujhe Budda Milgaya."
3. Meena Kumari - This might be a questionable addition to rant list as Meena apparently got overweight from all that drinking and marital problems. But Pakeezah and her slew of rubbish films that she made Pradeep Kumar and Ashok Kumar, I really didn't care that she looked drunk or tired throughout, she just could act and I didn't poke or try and spot how big she was. Her image and acting was cemented in my mind, and whether she looked big or not was not what the audience or I looked for, we are prepared to cry and weep during her films like Dil Ek Mandir or Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam.
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4. Neetu Singh - perhaps my favorite masala heroine, and being a girl with big boobs myself I looked to Neetu and Rekha and cheesily said "Well even in Bollywood you can't choose your assets!" Admittedly cheesy when I watched old Bollywood films I identified with the heroines that were my size and Neetu just did that for me. Maybe that's why I love old school heroines more these days as they weren't toooo criticized for having a huge rack or having roly tummy because back then audiences went to see a film and their stars for some escapism, and to be titillated by the hero and heroine wearing tight and stylish clothes
5. Mumtaz - One of my favorite heroines, and she just radiated curvaceousness and she just looked wonderful in sarees especially in her films with Rajesh Khanna and she wore the shortest sari tops with her, showing off her cute tummy! In her Dara films, she had her puppy fat that just didn't look puppy fat it made her the sexy B-movie heroine in distress! And obviously the directors loved showing off her bod to the audiences in rain songs in Do Raaste and Prem Kahani!
6. Nargis - the original curvy lady of the RK banner, she looked just lovely in any of the films she did with RK, and he definitely knew how to make the camera just soak up all that wonderful acting and her curves especially in the Rk penchant of the white sari! Obviously the best example of her dancing prowess and showing off her bod was in the "Ghar Aaya Pardesi"song in Aawara, lol even I wanted to have sparkles on my face and dance about like she did. And the key moment of cinema history was her wearing that fashionable swimsuit (lol that i bought after watching that!) and her changing scene after, of course Raju wanted to take a peek and act like a junglee and so did the audience!
7. Finally these two people that I've really lost respect for
YA I'll show off my ribs, while standing behind some sexy curvy ladies! DUHHHH
YA, A side profile of my tinny tummy looks really sexy! NOT!
I'm not gonna hate on all naturally skinny gals like Anushka Sharma, or others but its just that Kareena Kapoor is going all out to promote an unreal expectation and the fact that people look up to her as a role model. Its very harmful to hear quotes from magzines with "Kareena Kapoor the trailblazer of size-zero fad in India, admits that occasionally she does feel like putting on some extra kilos but resists the temptation because being a fashion icon she has to remain lean and sexy. " or even worse "My size zero is what got the attention of an international clothes manufacturer. I will be launching a clothes line soon.” This is gonna be awful if she starts a clothing line as it will probably bee 0-8, which will encourage young girls to be an unrealistic size just because their idol Kareena says its cool and men will flock to you!
Why does being lean need to be the new thing, its far more sexy and attractive to have some meat on you and not just show off your bod by shrinking in size to fit into a bikini ala Rani Mukherjee in DBHadippa which was just sooo unnecessary I don't mind an item number like the next fan but it just made me sad to see her sell out by trading her voluptuous figure to gyrate in a bikini for a few seconds in a silly shower. Sonam Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, and now Lara Dutta and other heroines really need to set a better example to young girls out there that are bombarded with their idols looking like Ally Macbeal's all of a sudden. Its just a sorry state of affairs in Bollywood that we now value skinny and unhealthy looking heroines to average sized Vidya Balan or Madhuri Dixit.
I really feel bad for the South Indian heroines that want to cross over to Bollywood, Asin has already said she had to slim down for London Dream and Trisha is toning her curves down for her film with Akshay Kumar! Honestly, beauty is skin deep for god's sake, it just makes me feel angry with the Deepika's that promote their size and just make girls feel bad for being the size that they are and wanting to be beautiful. Countless eating disorders will probably rise if this trend continues and who knows Kareena is probably starving herself to look the kind of "good" she sees. And I haven't noticed any slim heroine saying "Girls listen up, you've got to love what you see in the mirror, learn to love yourself, beauty comes from the inside!?" LOL maybe i've watched too much Tyra this week
What are your thoughts, and who are your fave voluptuous heroines?
Couldn't agree more on this! This entire size zero obsession drives me nuts. For some reason, a huge chunk of the media also seems to promote the notion that thin and healthy are the same thing. Past a certain point, it obviously isn't, but nobody seems to talk about that. Kareena whittles herself down to a size zero and the nation goes ga-ga. It makes me want to go eat a cheese sandwich in protest :-)
~ramsu