Posted:
When the femme's not fatale enough
What to do when there isn't an actress good enough to fit the character's shoes?
Raja sen
Posted On Wednesday, February 23, 2011 at 09:15:56 AM
I was watching William Wyler's sublime Roman Holiday on TV this Sunday, and immaculate as that film doubtless was, I couldn't help but reflect on Wyler's fantastically good fortune.
As Princess Ann wakes up in the journalist's bedroom she had assumed was an elevator, she takes a while to get accustomed to things, looking around blissfully blankly.
It is a frame that looks delightful only because of Audrey Hepburn. Having the most beautiful woman in the history of eyesight is an advantage no director should forego, and so the lens, justifiably yet indulgently, lingers far longer than it normally should on that magnificent, clueless face. Wyler's leading man, Gregory Peck, is also the stuff of sculpturable legend.
Wyler could afford to let his camera look at his leads more than usual, simply because of how impossibly good-looking they were. And so it is that we sit back and allow the camera to caress the protagonists even as they play off each other perfectly, the director more than content to bask in the perfection of his cosmetically perfect casting.
Yet what when you don't have the right man or woman for the job? Vishal Bhardwaj's highly ambitious misstep, Saat Khoon Maaf, suffers mostly because of bad writing, but also because his leading lady, Priyanka Chopra, instead of ever internalising her performance, wears it doggedly on the outside.
It is the sort of 'look-I'm-acting' performance that allows certain people to opine that she's actually working hard ('ooh, she's fat and grey and is cackling SO loudly') but never quite lets the audience connect with the character.
A 'confident' performance is far from being an assured one. A shame, because Ruskin Bond's Susanna deserved better.
But who else could it have been? Instinctively in love with Vishal's Macbeth adaptation, we yell Tabu. Yet the Tabu of today, of Toh Baat Pakki, isn't the Tabu we all flipped for in Maqbool.
Sure she was great in Cheeni Kum, but the Tabu of Maqbool (and, to some degree, the Tabu of Meenaxi and Astitva) has long been sidelined by an industry out to find the next Shimmying Shiela. Tabu circa 2005 would be perfect, but do we have any options today?
Maybe, just maybe, with a director like Bhardwaj sternly shoving her out of her comfort zone, Kareena could do it.
There are few current mainstream actresses as self-aware as Kapoor now she doesn't feel the need to wear her character's 'confidence' around her like a pretty shawl and even lesser are as surreally, almost spectrally, stunning.
Her skin the colour of moonlight enchanted us in his Othello adaptation earlier, and that ethereal, unworldly quality might have helped Bhardwaj's new film.
But the options, it must be said, are very limited. There are several pretty heroines without enough acting chops, some strong actresses lacking in the unbridled sexuality Susanna needs, some potentially interesting but mostly untested ingenues, and very few truly gorgeous ladies. Bhardwaj's first choice for the role, Aishwarya Rai, would have doubtless lifted the film purely by putting her face in it, but is that perhaps too big a price to pay?
What then is a director to do? With a killer character but no actress around, should he compromise with casting his leading lady? Or hold his horses till the right cinematic muse comes around? It is a tough call, and both options require great gumption. Tragically, in Bombay, it's never open season on actresses.
What to do when there isn't an actress good enough to fit the character's shoes?
Raja sen
Posted On Wednesday, February 23, 2011 at 09:15:56 AM
I was watching William Wyler's sublime Roman Holiday on TV this Sunday, and immaculate as that film doubtless was, I couldn't help but reflect on Wyler's fantastically good fortune.
As Princess Ann wakes up in the journalist's bedroom she had assumed was an elevator, she takes a while to get accustomed to things, looking around blissfully blankly.
It is a frame that looks delightful only because of Audrey Hepburn. Having the most beautiful woman in the history of eyesight is an advantage no director should forego, and so the lens, justifiably yet indulgently, lingers far longer than it normally should on that magnificent, clueless face. Wyler's leading man, Gregory Peck, is also the stuff of sculpturable legend.
Wyler could afford to let his camera look at his leads more than usual, simply because of how impossibly good-looking they were. And so it is that we sit back and allow the camera to caress the protagonists even as they play off each other perfectly, the director more than content to bask in the perfection of his cosmetically perfect casting.
Yet what when you don't have the right man or woman for the job? Vishal Bhardwaj's highly ambitious misstep, Saat Khoon Maaf, suffers mostly because of bad writing, but also because his leading lady, Priyanka Chopra, instead of ever internalising her performance, wears it doggedly on the outside.
It is the sort of 'look-I'm-acting' performance that allows certain people to opine that she's actually working hard ('ooh, she's fat and grey and is cackling SO loudly') but never quite lets the audience connect with the character.
A 'confident' performance is far from being an assured one. A shame, because Ruskin Bond's Susanna deserved better.
But who else could it have been? Instinctively in love with Vishal's Macbeth adaptation, we yell Tabu. Yet the Tabu of today, of Toh Baat Pakki, isn't the Tabu we all flipped for in Maqbool.
Sure she was great in Cheeni Kum, but the Tabu of Maqbool (and, to some degree, the Tabu of Meenaxi and Astitva) has long been sidelined by an industry out to find the next Shimmying Shiela. Tabu circa 2005 would be perfect, but do we have any options today?
Maybe, just maybe, with a director like Bhardwaj sternly shoving her out of her comfort zone, Kareena could do it.
There are few current mainstream actresses as self-aware as Kapoor now she doesn't feel the need to wear her character's 'confidence' around her like a pretty shawl and even lesser are as surreally, almost spectrally, stunning.
Her skin the colour of moonlight enchanted us in his Othello adaptation earlier, and that ethereal, unworldly quality might have helped Bhardwaj's new film.
But the options, it must be said, are very limited. There are several pretty heroines without enough acting chops, some strong actresses lacking in the unbridled sexuality Susanna needs, some potentially interesting but mostly untested ingenues, and very few truly gorgeous ladies. Bhardwaj's first choice for the role, Aishwarya Rai, would have doubtless lifted the film purely by putting her face in it, but is that perhaps too big a price to pay?
What then is a director to do? With a killer character but no actress around, should he compromise with casting his leading lady? Or hold his horses till the right cinematic muse comes around? It is a tough call, and both options require great gumption. Tragically, in Bombay, it's never open season on actresses.
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