Helen magic
SHARVARI PATWA
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National Award winning author Jerry Pinto on his book on Helen and Hindi films in general.
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Photo: Vivek Bendre
Magic of movies: Jerry Pinto.
How do you feel about the National Award?
For a while there was a suspension of disbelief; you don’t even feel like telling people in case your friends are playing a prank but when the official letter came I felt really happy.
How did the book happen? Did you always want to write a book on Helen?
Usually it starts with a passion and a deep obsession, but this one was the other way round. My publisher and editor Ravi Singh from Penguin India asked me who could write a book on Helen. It didn’t take me long to say that I’d do it. As I began, I realised that there was much more to it than I had thought. I bought 60 Helen films and bankrupted myself for that month. What happens with most film books is that the writers don’t actually see the films. They assume things. So the first notion was that Helen was the Original item girl. Today, an item girl appears for a certain moment; she dances, peps up that moment for the audience and presumably the hero and vanishes from the story. Helen was different; she actually had a role to play and this, oddly enough, was in defining the film’s moral universe. Morality in Indian cinema is located in the hero and the heroine. So if the heroine was virginal, Helen was not. If the heroine was true to Indian ideals, Helen was clearly from the West.
What is this book all about?
Actually this book is not so much about Helen as it is about identity. I was fascinated by the notion of a woman who was perceived as white and seemed to become a dream girl for the masses. Everywhere in the world, in popular culture, the hero lasts much longer than the heroine, but Helen danced for 30 years. This is astounding, so obviously there was a need for Helen. And this must have had something to do not just with eye-candy or the seductions of the flesh, but with who Helen was. And I think part of that was to do with Helen’s ability to be amorphous. This book is not only about Helen, it is also a book about the darker corners of the psyche of Hindi cinema seen through the prism of Helen.
What do you mean when you say that Helen has redefined the gender role in society?
I think one of the most important things Helen did was to produce a cross gender icon. While writing the book towards the end, my publisher and I asked feminists what they thought of it. They had bizarrely affectionate responses. They responded to Helen as someone enjoying her body. In essence Helen was about the adoration that beauty and sensuality can evoke.
How do you perceive Helen’s sexuality in the context of the book?
Playful and mischievous. The right word would be natkhat.
You said that she was not perceived as vulgar. Would the moralistic society, particularly of that time, agree?
Helen was hugely professional, but what is more important and what works for her is that she actually transcended a lot of rubbish that was thrown at her. There was cinema that was not tasteful; the camera positions, the dance moves, the lyrics are all indicative of exploitation. But the fact that you watched it and did not respond as an exploiter is the Helen magic.
Would the book have been different had you met her?
Not substantially, because I needed only biographical details from her. I think it is the screen presence of the Hindi stars, which is interesting. Otherwise they don’t have anything interesting or important to say.
Do you think that anyone can replace Helen or even come close closer to creating her magic?
No, because the moral universe of the Hindi cinema has changed. We are now playing a different game. Take “Tashan” for instance. If the heroine can stab somebody in the end, you don’t need Helen. Specific characters such as Mehmood or Johnny Walker or Helen are not easily replaced.
You found that many Helen movies are not available any where now. Do you think that we have managed to save what Helen was?
You can watch our entire silent cinema output in two afternoons; that’s all that’s left. The only tragedy worse than the way India has archived her cinematic past is when, in one Australian movie, they burn their own films (some 300 scenes) for one scene. We have treated cinema so horribly and with a lot of contempt and disdain. In 1950s All India Radio would not play Hindi film songs because they thought “Chal Chitra” would pervert the nation. But if you look at the good Hindi cinema has done, it far outweighs the bad.
Do you think we have and are undermining the role of Hindi cinema for ages?
We always have. It’s partly because of how we have consumed Hindi films, because of the gossip; but there also should be a slightly more intelligent approach. We should be able to engage in various ways with cinema, which we don’t. That is the pity. So if we want essays on Ritwik Ghatak, there are thousands, but if you want an essay on Manmohan Desai, there is one. “Amar Akbar Anthony” was an example of his genius. Whenever a Manmohan Desai film was released, blood banks would be full because poor people would go sell their blood to see it. He was aware that of this and said, ‘so I must produce one item per reel, which should be their entertainment’. This is where we get the word item number. The entertainment could be a comedy sequence, song, fight, dance or a powerful speech by Bachchan.
Does any other actor in Hindi cinema really merit a book?
There are hundreds of subjects that merit a book. For instance Rekha deserves a great, big, 10-volume work. I think there is a great book in B-Grade cinema films; on the Ramsay movies….
Do you think that Hindi Cinema has lost its magic?
We have too many options nowadays. We have downloadable films, Internet, Orkut and other ways of entertaining ourselves. When Helen danced there was one: Hindi cinema and nothing else. Now it must contend; then it ruled. So the magic of movies is gone. But, unlike earlier times, we now have access to other kinds of films, like the Japanese, in the corner DVD shops; so are the good things. It is a new paradigm, which we have entered.
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