Kadalo rajakumari serial negative role a tress death

They were willing to do what a vamp would do and titillate the audience, she adds.

Her Death 15 Years Ago Left A Vacuum, Says Kavitha Shanmugam, And Gave Rise To Leading Ladies Who Vamp A Bit On The Side.

The diva of oomph, Silk Smitha, jumped into the tub without a stitch on her body and without batting an eye.

It was this complete lack of inhibition on screen that made the actress not just a legend in the south but quite a phenomenon in the rest of the country too.

Now, 15 years after her death, her short event-packed life is the subject of the Ekta Kapoor biopic The Dirty Picture.

In one scene in a film, she reportedly removed her underwear with her toes while seducing the hero, says film historian Randor Guy.

But the vacuum created by her death she is believed to have committed suicide when she was 36 has never been filled.

Cinema has bid its last goodbye to the woman whose large, droopy and soulful eyes a look she had ostensibly practised hard on and pouting lips prodded an extremely reluctant and upright hero to conjure up a world of unimaginable pleasures.

Silk was the sexiest woman I had ever seen, stresses the avant garde film director of his time, Balu Mahendra, who gave her femme fatale image a respectable shine when she effectively portrayed the sexually frustrated wife of an old schoolmaster in his Hindi film Sadma.

She oozed sexuality, I needed that quality to show how an otherwise fairly rational schoolmaster falls into her trap.

God doesnt make duplicates, so a Silk Smitha can never be replaced, he says.

Back in 1948, the famous close-up of yesteryear voluptuous actress T.R.

Rajakumaris blouse in Chandralekha as she crosses a river to escape the villain made men break into a sweat, says Guy.

In the classic Parashakti (1952), a courtesan played by Kamala lures a confused Sivaji Ganesan with her dance number a scene still recalled by film buffs.

The current crop of neo-realistic south Indian films has no space for a vamp oozing sex like the role of a seductive tea shop owner that Silk marked her arrival with in the 1979 Tamil film Vandi Chakram.

Todays films are in a village milieu where the traditional south Indian girl is an object of puppy love and not sex, says Uma Vangal, professor, LV Prasad Film and TV Academy, Chennai.

As for the other masala films, heroines themselves are adroitly stepping into Silk Smithas shoes, making the role of the vamp redundant.

They dont stop to expose their bodies in an instant, dance in the rain or jump into a pool in two piece bathing suits, says director Bhagyaraj, who acted as Silks husband in Avasara Police 100.

But the roles the vamps played in the 1980s were distinctive.

Film scripts called for buxomy sex sirens to scorch the screens so much so that Silk Smitha had to use sponge to artificially enhance her front and back.

Among the many voluptuous cabaret queens who sizzled on screen were Jayamalini, Jyothilaksmi, Anuradha, Shakira and Jyothi.

Anuradha also tried to introduce her plump daughter Jyothimeena as a sex symbol.

Sona, Nirosha and many others and more recently, Namitha have all tried treading the Silk route but failed to last.

The failure of the traditional siren led to the coming out of the heroine as part pure, part sexy.

Vangal believes among those who ushered the change were Nagma and Khushboo.

Kadalo Rajakumari Serial Negative Role A Tress Death