The Original ITEM
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On October 28th, DD Channel 9 will air a specially put-together tribute to Helen called, ‘The Golden Girl : The Concert of a Lifetime’ featuring the leading ladies of Bollywood. Here, script-writer KAMLESH PANDEY pens his own ode to the sizzling temptress

In the private screening room of my mind, whenever I play back the movies of my adolescence, I quickly edit out all the scenes of Helen to savour them later. Just like the projectionist edits out all the kissing scenes and gifts them to the teenaged movie buff.

The post-independence Indian was an idealist in a socialist nation, thriving on suffering and sacrifice. Death embodied by Dilip Kumar in Devdas was charismatic; so was poverty. Raj Kapoor’s Awara and Shri 420 sang the glories of owning nothing, sleeping on bare earth under the stars, covered only in self-respect! It was consolation perfected into an art form. Rich girls falling in love with poor boys massaged the ego of the impoverished masses; tragedy was king and queen. Only villains smoked, drank and wore suits, echoing the just-departed British. And anything in skirts was forbidden fruit.

Helen, of course, was the most delicious one.

Helen was the empress of seduction: she ruled the empire of the senses. She was the daughter of the mythological Menaka, Rambha and Tillotamma born to challenge the celibacy and test the moral integrity and austerity of a nation which made a virtue out of masochism and called it penance, and liberation from bondage of desires.

It is not surprising why she was never allowed to be a leading lady. A society brought up on sexual suppression was scared of Helen and what her dances represented — pure, natural, uninhibited desire. Though many dancers, specially from South, became leading ladies, Helen was denied this honour because her dance was raw and primal. Her dance would not just entertain, but entice. Once in a while, when she did get leading roles, they were in third-rate costume action adventures meant for front-benchers. Respectable family audiences maintained a safe distance from such films and Helen’s name was unmentionable in such households. But young men of such respectable households carried her name like cigarette packs hidden inside books or shirts, to be savoured alone and in secrecy. Helen was a rite of passage and a way to assert one’s individuality during one’s wonder years, a way to defy society’s norms and parental control.

Helen was lightning trapped in feverish flesh and red blood, celebrating life unencumbered by inhibitions or too many clothes. In her gyrations, chromosomes danced and cells pounded a rhythmic beat. She was, indeed, a nuclear device ripe for biological warfare. In film after film, the screen exploded when she danced. In her body, the spirit strained at the seams to break out of the confines of outdated, anti-life traditions. In the age of fully covered heads, head-to-toe burkhas and knee-length veils, hers was the only defiant cleavage mocking the hypocrisy of a nation that carved Khajuraho and wrote the Kamasutra.

In my view, Helen was 40 years ahead of her time, even though she didn’t know about it. Today, from Madhuri Dixit and Aishwarya Rai to Juhi Chawla ad Sushmita Sen, every star, ‘‘large’’, ‘‘small’’ or ‘‘medium’’ considers it her privilege to flaunt her cleavage. In fact, in post-liberation India, cleavage-flaunting has become so common-place that it hardly draws weak whistles from the front stalls. But there was a time not long ago when Helen had the sole proprietorship of cleavage, and when she appeared on screen, pimples turned from red to purple.

In an age when every young man wanted a sister-in-law like Nirupa Roy, a wife like Nargis or Meena Kumari, a girlfriend like Madhubala and a sweetheart like Nimmi, Helen wassleepless nights of desire and guilt.

While the faces of Meena Kumari and Madhubala were the favourite book-marks in Algebra and Trigonometry texts, sizzling Helen was simply too hot for paper. She belonged in our blood, bones and tissue.

Without any intention of offending the so-called self-appointed guardians of our traditional values, morals and ideals, it is my humble submission that almost single-handedly, and without realising it, Helen embodied a rebellion against centuries of sexual suppression and poverty-driven socialist economy. I am sure Helen herself will be more shocked at this than anybody else but allow me to explain.

While austerity and celibacy may be welcomed as an individual preference, they are anti-development in the broader perspective. The tradition of renunciation by saints, sages and swamis glorified austerity and celibacy to such an extent that numerous young men and women who would have become technologists and scientists, became monks, leading to a system that made parasites out of people who should have otherwise contributed to the growth and development of the nation. These unnatural deprivations became glamorous. A deprived man was an unhappy and guilt-ridden man and it was easy for the clergy to exploit a guilt-ridden man. The work-free life of a monk became an excuse for laziness and incompetence.

It was not only counter-productive, it was alien to a country which has always celebrated life, and for which the word for God is Ishwar -- the ultimate luxury.
Helen’s persona represented this India against all the sick, perverted, regressive and masochistic past. And hence it attracted us in spite of all the taboos and prohibitions against it. It attracted us because it was the natural choice of life. That life was Helen....dancing, celebrating, seducing and full of joy. She was bare, earthy, vibrant life stripped of all its hypocrisies and inhibitions. An Ashtavakra watching her dance in a movie theatre would have been encouraged to strip away the last vestige of inhibition and unveil the eternal light. She was almost a spiritual experience.

In post-liberalisation, it is interesting to see how Helen has endured. It is even more interesting — and ironic — to see how a party which came to power on the platform of Hindutva, a party filled with self-appointed guardians of traditional values, morals and ideals, a party supported by monks and saints, is going liberal with a vengeance.

From self-denial to self-indulgence — the India of 60 channels, luxury consumer goods and condoms selling the joys of sex has come a long way. The 60’s sin is the new millennium’s basic necessity. The forbidden fruit of yore is being flaunted as trendy and fashionable. So it is not surprising that Helen is back with a bang. From Madonna to the Disco Dandia generation, they are all falling for her. The spirit that ‘misguided’ the youth in the 60’s is now guiding them! It is not my job to list her films and performances. There are enough experts doing that already. But to me, Helen has been more than her dance routines and performances. She has been a metaphor for the primal dance of life.

Ideals, morals and values are created by man to manage and govern society, Helens are created by life to constantly test those ideals, morals and values for their utility, and if necessary, to dynamite them. Every culture, every art form has this built-in device for rebellion: to entice the young and offend the old; to wear the taboo as talisman.

To celebrate life instead of fighting it.

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