A Star Burst!

By: Vithal C Nadkarni

By now, countless barrels of ink have been spilt over Vidya Balan’s screen performances. One recent sound bite from this outpouring describes the actor as “the champion of imperfections in a trade that cherishes and rewards perfection”.

The cineaste adds that every story about Balan’s struggles with weight loss and her inability to conform to trends had “surely sent stabs of recognition” in the hearts of Balan’s female fans watching her films who were as “sartorially challenged” as the star herself.

But we must not trivialise these gasps of self-recognition or make fun of them, cautions the philosopher Simon Blackburn. For, the bulk of humanity cowers from “the fear of falling short, of being inadequate in the eyes of others, including loved ones,” he explains in Mirror, Mirror: The Uses and Abuses of Self-Love. “It is desperately sad that quiet normal people suffer these fears.” To say that, however, is “not to blame the victims,” Blackburn clarifies, “for their anxieties are real enough, even if they are the result of wholly discreditable pressures.”

So how does one buck this trend? How to redeem one’s honour and self-esteem? Here, Vidya Balan’s own rise to stardom comes as a role model: she hated her body; felt victimised. Then she finally accepted herself: she couldn’t change her body; it was never going to happen.

She didn’t have to berate herself just for not fitting in a little black dress! “I was never perfect. Poor body of mine,” she sighs. As for blogs carping at her clothes-sense, she just stopped reading them! She became her own pal (Atmeva Bandhu). A star was born.