Damn good pic. Review on Page 3 - Bollywood

I saw page 3 before the reviews came out, and you know what - I really liked it. The next morning the Times gave the movie 4 stars, but the way it gushed about loving page 3 people and the fact that the review was anonymous made the rating quite suspect. What's worse, Indian Express and Sunday Midday both wrote the film off. Rather unfair, I thought!

Sure, the characters are shallow - that's what people on page 3 are like. If anything, Madhavi (Konkona Sen) appears to be a little more grounded in middle class values than the average glam circuit reporter probably is.

When Madhur Bhandarkar picks up a subject, he has something interesting to say about it throughout his film. He doesn't flinch from telling it like it is - no candy floss coating and convenient happy endings. Page 3 lives up to expectations - it shocks in parts, entertains in others. Whether it's Pearl (Sandhya Mridul), the air hostess looking for a rich NRI husband or Anjali Thapar (Soni Razdan), the neglected socialite wife running an orphanage, you know characters like those do exist. The party drugs scene, gay modelling co-ordinators and even paedophilia are issues the film touches on in a pretty hard hitting manner.

Atul Kulkarni as the crime reporter is well suited to his role. Contrasting his work with Madhavi's fluffly brand of journalism was a good way to show the difference between old fashioned news journalism and entertainment journalism - where all the focus seems to be today. The little touches are what I think really separate the good from the greats. And Page 3 I think has enough of those touches. The chauffeurs discussing their bade saabs was absolutely brilliant (and hilarious). And the funeral scene where socialites are pretending to pay tribute to the dead woman but are actually busy promoting themselves was a telling comment on the state of tabloid TV journalism in India today. I also liked the fact that Madhavi eventually chooses to continue her fight from 'within the system'.

That's what really takes guts.

Perhaps the recent Preeti Jain episode worked against Bhandarkar at some level. He may or may not be a womaniser - I don't really know. But I thought it was quite cool of him to actually portray the whole casting couch phenomenon in Page 3, given the circumstances. All in all, it's a movie definitely worth a watch