Dirty Picture: A Film About Indian Marilyn Monroe - Reviews

Biographical film. It is based on the story of "Bollywood Marilyn Monroe" - Indian actress Silk Smith, nicknamed "Silk" for her eroticism. Like Marilyn, she had a magnetic natural sexuality and became an idol for millions. Filmmakers exploited the created image for income, and Silk became hostage to her talent. Both actresses at the height of their fame, in their prime of beauty, suffered from loneliness and unrequited love and committed suicide: at 35, Silk committed suicide.

Dirty Picture, India, 2011

Directors: Milan Luthria

Cast: Vidya Balan

There is external success and internal success, they do not always coincide. External achievements are not always experienced in the same way from within the situation: the silver medalist of the Olympics may grieve about the lost gold and devalue his result; a successful businessman is jealous of a wealthier brother; popular actor - to drink from loneliness … And the degree of satisfaction with life is determined by subjective perception and the experience of inner success.

Internal loneliness with external adoration of fans is a frequent problem for actors. After all, adoration is not addressed to the actor himself as a person, but to the created image. Viewers often confuse the actor and the created image. This is not love, but a positive projection, idealization.

Projection is always a use, even if it is positive. An object is used as a white screen onto which material from one's own inner world is projected. The projection is blind: "I will not see you as you are, but as I want to see you, because I am pleased to see you that way."

Not only actors face positive projections in their address, they can go to anyone - this is just blind adoration. And with external attractiveness (compliments, gifts, loyal views), idealization is unpleasant: it is not addressed to you, but to a fictional image. Imagine you are wearing a blue T-shirt. They say to you: "What a terrible red T-shirt you are wearing!" Or: "What a beautiful red T-shirt you are wearing!" In the first case, the projection is negative, in the second, it is positive, but both of them are unpleasant, because they have nothing to do with reality.

Love built on projection is false love and, in fact, use. The object of love is perceived as something inanimate, they do not see and do not want to see a person in it

Popular actors and other successful people often find themselves in situations of being used for narcissistic self-affirmation. A man can show off his beautiful partner to his friends as a business card without trying to get to know her as a person. Likewise, some women brag about their partner's money and gifts to emphasize their value. Parents can use their children as a narcissistic extension - take their successes as their own and demand from them to achieve at all costs.

By virtue of their profession, actors often run the risk of being used for self-affirmation. If in medieval Europe actors were not even buried in a cemetery, and marriages with actors were considered a misalliance, in modern society this profession is considered prestigious. And the aura of prestige extends to those who are involved: they are a relative, a friend, a partner of the actor … Therefore, many strive to at least take a picture with a famous person and post the photo for all to see on social networks. This use is to increase your own value at the expense of the value of another person.

Projection can become a trap. The world for us is a kind of mirror, sometimes crooked. If we are seen in a certain way, we can believe that it is true. This mechanism is called "projective identification": we identify ourselves with the projection that is directed at us. We believe that we are. For example, if you call a child "clumsy", he will begin to consider himself so, identify with a negative projection. But on the contrary, if you constantly praise a child and call him the best, the most talented, then he narcissistically believes in his superiority over the rest, is identified with a positive projection.

Most often, public people encounter projections: actors, politicians, TV presenters … They can lose themselves behind these projections. If you constantly see yourself with someone else's eyes, you can forget who you really are. Loss of oneself leads to the strongest existential crisis - the loss of the meaning of life. And to loneliness: if they do not love you, but a certain projected image, you find yourself without love and without contact.

The heroine of the film finds herself in this situation. She gets a lot of attention, but nobody cares about her. Someone is in positive projections: they adore her as a film star. And some are negative: even her own mother, as a traditional Indian woman, condemns her daughter's film career, her outfits and dances.

Loneliness pushes Silk to a fatal decision. But the suicide does not always kill himself. In fact, he is killed by indifference, use, rejection from others.

In contact with yourself

If you feel that the projections of others are pressing on you, preventing you from feeling real, start doing this exercise.

Think and describe three images:

• First image. Answer in detail the question "What good do others see in me?"
• Second image. Now, imagine an alternative to the first image, answering the question "What do others see bad in me?"
• Third image. The crucial step is to think about who you really are. Present this image in all details.

Which image is easiest for you to describe? More difficult? Is the third image very different from the first two? Do those around you see the present? And you yourself?

This exercise can be repeated every two to three months. It helps you get in touch with yourself and disidentify with the projections that are being directed at you.