“Urmila [Matondkar] is a soft porn star,” Kangana Ranaut said on a television debate last evening, with a smirk. Many did not flinch at Kangana’s statement, but many others jumped, leapt out of their chairs to defend Urmila, an ex-Congress karyakarta. Urmila’s political standing wouldn’t be relevant if it wasn’t for this next statement from Kangana, “If a soft porn star can get a ticket, it is not very difficult for me to get a ticket.”
But we’re not interested in the colour of one’s kurta here, we’re only interested in the ‘silver’ screen where everything is ‘Rangeela’. What did Urmila do to deserve this derogatory remark? Kangana, of course, is referring to Urmila’s repertoire of work, which, frankly, bears far more weight than Kangana’s 14-year long Bollywood career, and the ‘item numbers’ or other sensuous roles Urmila did. And yes, there have been many. Ram Gopal Varma’s Rangeela certainly stands out, as much as his Satya – for saree can be sexy too, right? RGV’s Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya for the obsessive lover Urmila portrayed, as does Sriram Raghavan’s Ek Hasina Thi – cold revenge served sexy.
But, Kangana Ranaut is an honourable woman.
So when Kangana says ‘Urmila is not known for her acting’, we listen. Isn’t art, art? Some of us may question, but we’re listening Kangy, to you, always.
Interestingly, Kangana herself wasn’t really known for her acting until Queen. Kangana started off with Gangster and Woh Lamhe in 2006, both of which became hits that year. So much so, that Woh Lamhe trapped Kangana in the ‘crazy, drug-addict’ mould for the next couple of years – case in point: Life in a… Metro in 2007 (briefly) and more significantly, Fashion (2008). But we’re more interested in qualifies as ‘soft porn’ and ‘item number’. Let’s see.
Does the title track of Shaka Laka Boom Boom (2007) count? There’s so little available on the internet about this Kangana Ranaut film that we couldn’t even find the trailer. Wikipedia, however, describes it as a love triangle between Bobby Deol’s AJ, Upen Patel’s Reggie and Kangana’s Ruhi. We’ll leave you with this track, you be the judge.
What about Raaz: The Mystery Continues (2009)? Kangana might want to wipe it off her filmography, because, you know, Adhyayan Suman, but we remember the film, right? Nandita (Kangana) and Yash (Adhyayan) are a couple, while Prithvi Singh (Emraan Hashmi) is in love with Nandini – or her face – too. Were there no intimate scenes, no montages of going to bed and waking up with your partner wrapped in white bed linen, watching the sunrise? It was a Bhatt film, just FYI.
Yeh Junoon, a song from Shootout At Wadala (2013) stands out when talking about intimate scenes. Kangana Ranaut as Vidya Joshi and John Abraham as Manya Surve, are caught in this fierce passionate number, as Manya narrates his descent into crime to ACP Afaaque Baaghran (Anil Kapoor) after being captured. Kangana’s blouse was ripped off by John in one scene of this song. Some might classify that as ‘soft porn’ too. Would Kangana?
The very same year, Kangana Ranaut was seen in Rajjo, which followed the story of a tawaif (courtesan) and a 17-year-old boy. Kangana reportedly did refuse love-making scenes in this film, because her co-star Paras Arora was too young, but the film was still all about the ‘item numbers’ Urmila is being cornered for today.
Revolver Rani (2014) was where Kangana played the antithesis of a womanisier. Brave. But we also remember the ‘erotic kiss’ scene that was projected as the highlight of the film – the shooting of which apparently left her co-star Vir Das with a bloody lip.
Kangana and Imraan Khan-starrer Katti Batti (2015) had plenty of kissing scenes too, including the innumerable ones in the song Lip To Lip. The film did not work that well at the box office, but one certainly remembers Kangana and Imraan’s quirky modern love story and an intimate one at that.
Kangana, Shahid Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan-starrer Rangoon (2017) also created quite a buzz, and precisely for such ‘intimate’ scenes. The song Yeh Ishq Hai captures Kangana and Shahid in a passionate scene, something that was apparently not discussed beforehand. Yet when Vishal Bhardwaj (director) told Kangna about it, she did not shy away. In fact, Kangana had said back then that she enjoyed shooting intimate scenes.
The point is, none of these scenes or songs registered as ‘soft porn’ in our heads until Kangana pointed it out. Turns out she’s as much of a soft porn star as Urmila, or any other actor – male or female – in the Hindi film industry. Yes, we can term these as ‘ashleel’ and ‘humari sabhyata ke khilaaf’, look down upon those who shoot such scenes and make sexist, classless remarks about their ‘talent’ or the lack of it on TV debates. But let’s face it, it’s taken Indian cinema decades to come out of the flower molesting flower phase of the 70s, and take a step towards de-tabooing sex. And then on the ides of September (sort of), Kangana stabs it in the back – et tu, Kangana?