Priyanka Chopra, Marathi mulgee and KAMINEY

It indeed is one of the apparent paradoxes that though the film industry is based in Maharastra the female characters having Maharastrian background are a rarity. The underlining premise of the argument is that whenever the female stars have adorned the role of a Maharastrian lady, it has provided further brand proposition to their market value. If one were to qualify the argument further, the female star, if she has been provided with a situation of a song that is shot through and through with folk, the quotient of its success nearly hundred percent.

No wonder the kind of mileage that Priyanka Chopra is getting after her portrayal of a Marathi mulgee with a chutzpah in KAMINEY has become a talk of the town. There indeed is a gut feeling that the kind of spunk that she has packed in the performance is indeed going to become a turning point in her career post-KAMINEY, with the song ''raat ke dhai baje ye latak payee baje''. As a matter of fact the history is replete with these kind of examples and one of the prime successes of this kind was that of Madhuri Dixit in the film HIFAZAT which showed the kind of gay abandon that he could bring into a song, if it was set up against a Konkani background. No wonder, when she got another opportunity in SAILAAB, Madhuri literally set the screen on fire with her effervescent dance number'' Uljhi hai yeh kis jaal mein tu'' and SAILAAB is remembered only for this number and nothing else in particular.

For that matter Padmini Kolhapure had come into in a big way with the song: ''Saat Saheliyan Khari Khari '' from the film VIDHATA which had provided the glimpse of the sheer fun and tease that a song could invoke at its passionate best. Or for that matter when Dimple Kapadia had made her debut with BOBBY, its song ''gege re ge re saiba'', also had been a major contributory factor to her success. In the same manner Pooja Bhatt in the song ''Kalyan, Sangli Konachi'', from DIL HAI KI MANTA NAHIN was able to pack lot of punch in her performance, though her comfort factor with dance was a matter of debate otherwise.

May be, after the initiative taken by Priyanka Chopra through KAMINEY more such roles would be written which would help the female stars register with the common audience as there would be elements of cultural connect, otherwise lacking in the present day film scenario.