Beauty can be a curse

Silk
Kannada (A) ***
Director: Trishul
Cast: Veena Mallik, Akshay and Sana

A village girl blessed with a figure that is hard to hide from lustful eyes lands up in the big bad city to become a heroine, and of course look after her stepmother and stepsisters.

Instead, she ends up being glammed up to satisfy the greed of Ammanni (Sana, impressive debut that peters out into stereotypical villainy), selling her body to the “highest bidder”. Throw in a mention of being a bar dancer for a brief period and actress Veena Mallik’s character sketch is complete.

Silk borrows the original name of late Silk Smitha, her dance moves with various heroes across different industries and little else. Yet, all publicity is good publicity (again). Storywise, there’s nothing fresh except perhaps the atmosphere charged by the presence of a woman labelled and lusted after mainly for her enhanced assets — society’s treatment of women, irrespective of their achievements, remains the same at the most basic level. The director, while getting away with vulgar dialogues under the guise of depicting reality, plays safe when it comes to the plotline. He gets his characters to preach about Aids awareness, sexual hygiene etc but that comes too late in the film. His hero, however, climbs another step on the acting ladder, helped generously by a performer, whose “boldness” masks a determination to prove a point or two to her detractors. And so, it is one “item song” after another for hardcore soft-porn fans, with Veena scorching Kannada screens like no other woman has done before, long after the charm went out of exciting interest by being mysterious. It is vain to hope that Kannada hudugis won’t be pressurised to follow her footsteps in future. But there’s more to Veena than a well-sculpted and well-refurbished body. She is value for every paise paid to her.
It is ironical that her face becomes the biggest drawback with coloured irises disturbing the emotional impact getting created. Which she turns into an advantage post her on-screen marriage but before her acting gets noticed, the show is over, leaving behind angst and a little dissatisfaction.

Jai Anand’s camera romances Veena well, while Jassie Gift’s music doesn’t “rise” to the occasion. Nagendra Urs’ editing is up to the mark.

The Sadhu Kokila comedy track featuring late R G Vijayasarathy (whose voice is drowned out mercifully) was unnecessary. Ultimately Silk requires Veena and only Veena to do business, just like the fabric dependent on the worm that is boiled alive.