Bücher von Jerry Pinto

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It is now well over three decades since the Hindi-film heroine drove the vampinto extinction, and even longer since the silver screen was ignited by thetrue Bollywood version of a cabaret. Yet, Helen-nicknamed 'H-Bomb' at theheight of her career-continues to rule the popular imagination. Improbably,for an 'item girl'-who rarely appeared for more than five minutes in amovie-she has become an icon.Jerry Pinto's sparkling book is a study of the phenomenon that was Helen:Why did a refugee of French-Burmese parentage succeed as wildly as she didin mainstream Indian cinema? How could otherwise conservative familiessit through, and even enjoy, her cabarets? What made Helen 'the desirethat you need not be embarrassed about feeling'? How did she manage theunimaginable: vamp three generations of men on screen?Equally, the book is a gloriously witty and provocative examination of middleclass Indian morality; the politics of religion, gender and sexuality in popularculture; and the importance of the song, the item number and the waywardwoman in Hindi cinema.