The brutal agonies of a celebrity party

If anything, Page Three comes late in the day. Newspaper readers noticed the banality of Page 3 journalism a decade ago. Like everything new, Page 3 enjoyed the attention it received. Once regarded as an intruder, it gradually became part of the daily ritual.

Readers, many of whom regarded and still regard newspapers as Bible, swallowed it quietly as long as it gave them a slice of life from the world of the movers and shakers. The alarm bells rang when fake fashionistas, Bollywood bimbos, known arm dealers and unknown art collectors increasingly got pasted on it.

It’s this disgraceful fall that Page Three points at. It’s this total disregard for journalistic ethics and a criminal preference for gloss over grain. The dilemma of the protagonist, a journalist admirably played by Konkana Sen Sharma, mirrors the lot of an entire generation that joined the business of newsgathering but became rehashing agents of PR releases. Surely, the platoons of Page 3 journos who cover society soirees with gusto today never swore by The Bold and the Beautiful.

And that’s what Konkana is faced with. Tired of meeting the same glamourati, she complains of monotony. Her ‘‘concerned’’ editor (Boman Irani) sees it as a mood swing of a young idealist which will evaporate soon. Putting her under the internship of a hardcore crime reporter (Atul Kulkarni), Irani pronounces nonchalantly: ‘‘Chaar din mein wapas Page 3 par aajayegi (She will return to Page 3 in four days).’’ And when she is seen to be learning the ropes fast and improving, she is put back to where she doesn’t want to be: Page 3. When she breaks news of a paedophile racket, the proprietor, unable to stomach the girl’s transgressions, barks at the submissive editor: ‘‘Fire the bitch.’’

Interestingly, many real-life Page 3 regulars who act in the film don’t regret ‘‘exposing’’ the naked truth about their own community. Mumbai socialite Dolly Thakore, who plays an author partying endlessly, says: ‘‘It’s a realistic story. I can name a dozen fellows who gatecrash celebrity dos. Many so-called socialites have put on a facade and they needed to be exposed.’’

Perhaps Page Three wouldn’t have generated so much heat had it simply dealt with a reporter. It goes beyond that. It shows how running after glamour has ruined lives. Many are drawing parallels between Page Three’s character of a Bollywood wannabe (Tara Sharma) and Preeti Jain who dragged Bhandarkar to courts for alleged rape. The travails of Tara reaffirm the existence of casting couch in tinseltown. But, like several other star-struck girls who come to Mumbai from the backwaters of Ballia to Jhumri Talaiyya, Pandharpur to Patiala, Tara finally falls in line. She becomes part of the same vicious system she once hated.

And what about the third girl—the frank, brash airhostess (Sandhya Mridul) whose only aim in life is to marry a moneybags? She ends up tying the knot with a middle-aged millionaire.

You can criticise Bhandarkar for his killing predictability. You cannot deny the monstrosity he dares to depict. One doesn’t know how many Page 3 regulars feel apologetic after having watched Page Three.