Screwrawat, at least get your facts right

Mallika Sherawat's video interview with Variety hasn't won her too many popularity points. Her opinions have angered people like Priyanka Chopra, who said she was "extremely offended" by Sherawat's proclamation that India is "regressive" especially since Sherawat used an international platform to air these views. Being somewhat pedantic by nature, I'm more troubled by the factual inaccuracies in Sherawat's interview than by her lack of patriotic spirit. Just in case anyone thought the only thing problematic in Sherawat's interview was her accent, here's a look at how facts go for a toss when Sherawat attempts to sum up the problems in Bollywood. All of Sherawat's quotes are taken from this interview.

"It's about the story of a woman who gets involved with a politician who was a nurse…."

Admittedly, this is more of a concern with grammar than facts and while watching the interview, please imagine us thrusting different chapters of Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr and EB White under Sherawat's nose with every other word she speaks because Sherawat's grasp over English doesn't seem too strong. However, it seems worth pointing out that Sherawat's upcoming film Dirty Politics is not about a woman who gets involved with a nurse-politician. It's inspired by the real-life case of Bhanwari Devi, a midwife who went missing in 2011 and remnants of whose body were eventually found in early 2012. She did indeed get involved with a politician (Mahipal Maderna) and threatened to release to the press a CD of the two of them having sex if he didn't pay her crores. Soon after, she disappeared. Bhanwari Devi's husband accused Maderna of the rape and murder of Bhanwari Devi.

"India is such a hypocritical society where women are really at the bottom of society, compared to men…"

Not to be difficult, but women are in a disadvantaged position in comparison to men everywhere in the world. This is because most of the world — regardless of region, geography, culture and ethnicity — is patriarchal and patriarchy privileges and empowers men over women.

"…here was this woman who actually had the courage to stand up to this politician who kind of raped her, molested her, abused her and record his misgivings and everything, and release it to the press."

First of all, what does it mean to be "kind of raped"? Second, is blackmailing a person the same as "standing up" to them? There seems to be little doubt that Bhanwari Devi was abducted and killed because she overplayed her hand when she tried to blackmail Maderna. Also, a "misgiving" is a doubt or apprehension over something. It seems unlikely that Bhanwari Devi's sex CD had Maderna sharing his concerns and worries. Finally, Bhanwari Devi is not the one who released the clips to the press. The girlfriend of one of the key suspects in Bhanwari Devi's kidnapping did this. Clearly, the script of Dirty Politics isn't sticking to facts.

"It's very challenging for any actor to be in a biopic. Not only physically do you have to resemble the character, do your best, but also mentally what the character was going through, the thoughts, the emotions…"

Note to She Who Thinks She Is India's Helen Mirren, figuring out a character's thoughts and emotions are the basic requirements of acting in general. It's not like fictional characters are beyond the boundaries of logic and causality. Then again, considering Sherawat'sfilmography, she probably doesn't know this from personal experience.

"I was the first actress in India to kiss on screen and wear a bikini."

No, madam, you were not. The lip-lock credit (and record) goes to Devika Rani, who in 1933 kissed her hero for four long minutes in the film Karma. The first Indian actress to wear a bikini was Sharmila Tagore in An Evening in Paris (1967). Other famous vintage Bollywood bikini wearers include Zeenat Aman and Dimple Kapadia.

"Instantly, I became a fallen woman and a superstar at the same time"

To quote Michael Jackson, you are not alone. While Sherawat is overstating the case when she declares herself a "superstar", it's true that Sherawat became famous for her surgically-enhanced appearance and frankness about sexuality. However, Sherawat is one of many starlets who have tried to take over Bollywood with oomph and after a few seconds of fame, they've ended up being irrelevant because an oomphier competitor has entered the scene. From Mamta Kulkarni to Sunny Leone and Sherlyn Chopra, the list of names in Sherawat's sorority is long.

"I was one of the first actresses to be cast by Jackie Chan in a movie called The Myth…"

Aside from the fact that being cast by Chan (adorable and fun as he is) doesn't say much for Sherawat the actress, Chan has acted in about 117 films since his debut in 1962. So Sherawat's claim that she's one of first actresses he's cast seems a bit dodgy. Sherawat also says that the martial arts fantasy flick brought her to Cannes for the first time and got her much international attention. The Myth was released in 2005. The 2005 edition of Cannes had films by Jim Jarmusch, Wim Wenders, Gus van Sant, David Cronenberg, Lars von Trier, Michael Haneke and the Dardennes brothers. Just saying.

"I was fortunate enough to do an American movie called Politics of Love…"

Which almost no one has heard of and which has a 2.6 rating on IMDb.

"I worked with Jennifer Lynch, who's David Lynch's daughter…"

The film was called Hisss and Sherawat played a shape-shifting snake woman who is determined to avenge the death of the love of her life (a snake-man, obviously). Possibly in an effort to keep feminists happy, this snake woman brutally murders men who mistreat women. In IMDb, the film is described using three tags: drama, horror and comedy. If you search for clips from the film on YouTube, you actually get a video of a hissing goose, which just goes to show that sometimes when you think you're baring your fangs like a hissing snake, all the internet sees is an angry goose.

http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/dear-mallika-sherawat-at-least-get-your-facts-right-821195.html