rakhi sawant

i love rakhi sawant- as pretty much everyone whom i spoke to does, who saw her looking hot in a manish malhotra sari with karan johar on sunday. her brazen sexuality and her innocence, her matter-of-factness about her silicone lips, the nips and tucks she has had; and her strange mixture of self-deprecating humor and yet complete self-centeredness seem strange. she talks about herself in the third person as if the persona she has created is not her. as a character study she is incredibly fascinating. a classic rags to riches story, with a deserter father, a conservative mother, a family to look after, casting couches and a supergirl costume. on ‘lola kutty’ she wore the costume on the show and asked the country to admire her thighs before breaking out into rajnikanth and chiranjeevi imitations. for a change lola had no quick one-liners and just had to laugh (‘at’ or ‘with’ her – is a question that we all have to answer whenever we giggle away at rakhi)

twisted into a strange cocktail by the glare of the spotlights of the media, she is great headline material. on ‘big brother’ if we got to see the ‘real’ her- it seemed to be the same persona as the music videos and the interviews. silly, stupid, sexy in an in-your-face way; we tolerate her, and even seem to love her idiocy and her street-smartness. i wonder whether there is something extremely sexist about this. i don’t think we would have tolerated the same traits in a man. somehow we assume to be her ‘patrons’, looking down at her as much as we seem to enjoy her antics. i remember when madonna in the 1980s had just begun her career and was shamelessly using her sexuality to get attention. she seemed to know exactly what to do to make the media dance to her tune. it is another thing that the songs themselves were ridiculously catchy. i wonder whether rakhi is as much in control of her destiny. she does not seem to be. she is merely a media created animal. the media is using her, she is not in charge. her persona is one that attracts us; but might bore us soon, fickle patrons that we are.