Marilyn and her Legacy!!

This weekend, I attempted something which not many people of my generation attempt to - I watched movies of 1950s. I used to do that back in India, when my father and me used to sit and discuss the technicalities of the olden black and white movies and my father used to rewind and replay many scenes only to explain the advances in technology used in movies like "Maya Bazaar" and other mythological ones. They did not have computers but still made excellent stuff. But anyways, what I did this time was I saw Hollywood's 1950s (although still remembering the Sunday times spent with daddy). 

There was only one name ringing at that time - that of Marilyn Monroe. Recently her fans celebrated her birthday, I think 84th one, not sure, on June 1st. I never knew any other actress from that era, other than Marilyn. Of course Barbara Eden and Elizabeth Montgomery, but then they were 1960s type and not 1950s. I used to love watching them on screen as a child.. (they were beautiful, their costumes were excellent and their blonde hair was perfect in sync with their skin color). But after watching the movies - How to marry a Millionaire,  Gentlemen prefer Blondes, the Seven Year Itch, the Prince and the Showgirl, I was rather disappointed. 

I did not understand why Marilyn was so popular. I am not writing an article against her, but simply that I cannot understand why was she so great that other actresses, who had better roles to play and more magnificent personality, were overshadowed by her!! For example, I was smitten by the beauty of Jane Russell in Gentlemen prefer Blondes. She was tall, beautiful and had amazing command on voice and character that she played, but that movie was particularly famous for Marylin and her song Diamonds are the girl's best friends. Marilyn was just another blonde in that movie, with no substantial role. I really want to sit with some fans of hers and ask them why exactly she was so hyped!! She was watchable, but so were other females like Lauren Bacall and Jane Russell. I read a lot about them in the weekend that went, and they were all very famous in their own sense, but no one matched Marilyn anyways. Even the movie - The seven year Itch (which by the way, I recommend everyone to watch) was awesome because of Tom Ewell but is remembered for only Marilyn's skirt scene (which again, by the way, is nothing for people of my generations, ladies have shown so much on screen that the skirt scene is simply nothing to us!!)

I liked Marilyn more off screens than on screens, for sure. She was beautiful, great smile (she could afford to date the Kennedy's, both of them!!) and her dressing sense was impeccable. I disliked her for her roles because I believe that, to be called as an actress, they should do much more important roles than just paying eye candy...and with those standards, I can never like Marilyn. That was a stereotypical role which she passed on to generations where the heroine is just a supplement to the-color-and-the-glamor starved film. Although, at this time we cannot put Hollywood in the same pedestal, but Indian cinema is still the same. Even now, heroins are required to shed their clothes to fill in those 50% of seats in the theaters. Female oriented movies are rare here and I am not sure how long it is going to take for our actresses to seek some self respect. Telugu movies are even worse than Hindi industry, if we compare. All the movies in Telugu industry are "essentially" hero oriented. And to add to the pressure, we have more than 1 heroine all the times, the actors simply cannot act with just 1 heroine. While preparing dinner, I just wanted something to play on computer and I started the movie Dostana, and the same thought crossed again after seeing Shilpa Shetty. I am not saying that they cannot scorch the screens, but then for how long? Why don't Indian people get tired of seeing them half naked? I wish we have more Shabanas, Smita Patils and Konkanas who do movies because they want to "act"!! I hate the fact that we call Rakhi Sawant and Sherlyn Chopra also as actresses in the same breath as we call Madhubala, Nargis, Meena Kumari, Konkana Sen and Kajol. 

I guess too many thoughts just crossed my mind as I started writing and I started jumping from (over hyped as per my standards) Marilyn to the eye candy heroines who do not mind just singing and dancing in a movie rather than emoting!! This could have been a very very long article about actresses, then and now, with their charm and grace completely lost and having no roles to fuel their talent, but lets talk about that later, time to sign off!!!

Love,
Raji