The first reason I love Mallika Sherawat is because of what she isn't. What she is not is a throwaway sex symbol, the likes of which you may stumble across in any of the back lanes of Bollywood, Hollywood or any -ollywood for that matter!
What she is, first-and-foremost, is an actress. As we have seen in Ugly aur Pagli and soon in Maan Gaye Mughall-e-Azam, she has perfect comic timing, a very rare attribute that can only come from deep within. But in addition to that, she can also play demure and confused characters as she did in the much-underacted Murder opposite Emraan Hashmi. Soon, we hope to see her in her most sensuous and possibly most threatening avatar as Naagin, the Snake Goddess, in the Jennifer Lynch movie that may just possibly launch her on the international stage in the way that she deserves.
The third reason is that she's intelligent. She's a graduate in Indian philosophy from Delhi University and her knowledge and background will no doubt be a great asset on the set of Naagin. When she speaks in interviews, her answers reflect a person who really knows what they're talking about. This girl's no bimbo.
After a short and disastrous marriage, she made the right decision and jumped ship, packed her bags and followed her childhood dream to Bollywood. That takes guts! She made her movie debut in Khwahish in 2003 which stunned everyone with its seventeen sexy kisses. Suddenly, she was the 'Bollywood Bombshell'! But it was Murder in 2004 that first made people look up and see her as an actress. The film went on to become one of the biggest hits of the year with more twists and turns in the last twenty minutes than a corkscrew. For her role in this film, she was deservedly nominated for the Zee Cine Award for Best Actress. This is the film, by the way, in case you'd forgotten, that has the amazing lip-locking scene with Emraan.
Pyaar Ke Side Effects in 2006 also won her many plaudits as she appeared opposite Rahul Bose. This was followed by one of her staggering item numbers on screen, titled 'Mayya Mayya' from the film Guru in 2007. This leads me to the fifth reason why I love Mallika – boy, she can dance! For her magnetic item number in Aap Ka Suroor in the same year, she was reportedly paid 1.5 crore for a 10-minute performance.
2007 also saw a very good performance from her in the movie Welcome which incidentally ran into some problems in Pakistan because of its sexy scenes, almost reversing the policy of opening-up that Pakistan had been extending toward Bollywood. However, it has been in 2008 that Mallika is finally leaping into superstar status. Firstly there was the huge Kollywood movie Dasavathaaram (Ten Avatars) built around the chaos theory and the butterfly effect. It brings together the lives of ten very different people (all played by Kamal Hassan) prior to the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004 that killed a quarter of a million people. It's a staggering production and Mallika is very strong as the lead actress. It also leads me to the sixth reason why I love Mallika – she is absolutely at ease with her sexuality. Appearing in public at the launch of the movie, she was criticised by some Hindu organisations for wearing a skimpy dress and sitting with her legs crossed. So, she's not too popular with the Hindu traditionalists, but definitely has lots of fans elsewhere! Recently, it was rumoured that Playboy magazine would like to feature Mallika but – being a good girl – she politely declined. She was also recently voted the most fantasized-about woman in India by young Indian men.
The seventh reason I love Mallika is that she's really very sweet. She recently left her trailer on the set of Maan Gaye… looking stunned and dazed. When questioned, she said she'd just seen the ghost of Madhubala in her trailer – Madhubala of course was the star of the original Mughal-e-Azam. A member of the unit said, "Mallika was too stunned to react! She told us that she saw a ghost of Madhubala. It may sound unbelievable but these things happen and there's no logic behind it."
And the eighth reason is a genuine love for her professionalism. The director of the movie, Sanjay Chhel, asked her to play the cello in the sea for one scene. Despite being battered by a huge wave, she dragged herself back to her feet and insisted they shoot the scene that the director wanted.
What's up next for Mallika? Fauj Mein Mauj should be a crackerjack of a movie – it's a comedy where the sexiest woman in India (guess who?) becomes the first woman to join the infantry division in the Indian Army and this could be followed by an American movie, Unveiled, a thriller, where Mallika is a woman whose life is closing in on her and she escapes by taking the identity of a recently deceased friend – only to find she's jumped from the frying pan into the fire.
And that's the tenth, and most important, reason I love Mallika. She's never ever boring. There's always a new direction in her life, a new angle that she's exploring. She's bright, articulate, sensitive, spunky and sexy – what more could any man want?
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