Beautiful Thing: Book Review

 Beautiful Thing

Inside the secret world of Bombay’s dance bars

Book author: Sonia Faleiro

Beautiful Thing is a documentary book on the lives of bar dancers in Bombay. The story unfurls when Faleiro meets Leela (the “bootiful” girl) and slowly gets acquainted with her world. Faleiro built a chemistry with Leela and then her acquaintances in a way, it grew into a friendship. It was a different kind of friendship.  Faleiro calls it, So our one-sided relationship may be characterized thus: I called Leela. She ‘missed-called’ me.

The journalist in her story-style documentary tells her why she was drawn towards Leela.

Leela was paid to dance for men. And I, and most people I knew, had seen bar dancers only in Bollywood films—not as the protagonist, but as background entertainment, one-dimensional and on the margins; manipulated and mistreated.

Accompanied by Faleiro, we visit the apartment of Leela.

Six squeezed into a 1 BHK, living in such disarray to a stranger’s eyes it would appear they moved in the previous night. Six sprawled on mattresses that had, with time, been whittled down to a bony hardness, flat as the ground itself. Six headrests were dupattas. Six stuck their collection in their bras, their jewellery into shoes, their shoes and clothes into plastic bags.

They gave the impression that any time now they would pick up and leave.

Dancing in a bar is not a career these young girls aspired to. The bar dancers come from a pool of girls/women who shared abusive or poor backgrounds. Either they were forced by their parents to split their legs to customers, or they had to force themselves to do so. Either way, this act/business bought them meals. So when one girl meets the hunger for sex of a customer, the customer on the other hand meets the girl’s hunger for food. In this pool of girls, dancing in a bar gives one more choice to make. It is on their hands, the bar’s good name relies on. They feel powerful, like they belong to the privileged class of this sex world. It was their only option to live with a little bit more dignity than their peers—sex workers, hijras, pimps etc.

In their fantasy, the man snoring next to them turns out to be the man they have been always waiting for. A girl fantasies that he falls in love with her, abandons his family, marries her, lets her retire from the bar. Then she is to host big parties, be the attention of a social group “Mrs. xyz knows how to throw a party!”... If their customer works in the film industry, their fantasy takes a different version—the customer offers her a big role in the new hotshot movie. She leaps from the class of bar dancers to the ones who play bar dancers on the big screens.

Though these fantasies almost never see daylight, the probable upgrade in life for them is—get gangster customers. The girls love gangsters. They respect other girls sleeping with gangsters. Gape their mouths open listening to the stories of their heroism. And if the gangsters ever spent jail time, their gape only widens. The ultimate upgrade their career may see—work in Dubai. Dubai immediately creates a sensation in these girls. “Kustomer only gives gold,” their eyes shine dreaming about Dubai. And not any girl makes it to Dubai. They are selected through a “scanning” process, also they should be able to speak in a civilized manner. Be able to compete in a foreign class—that is it.

Faleiro takes us to the men too. The “kustomer”. Leela’s friend Priya let us meet a customer of hers—a simple businessman in Bombay. He came from a rural village to Bombay, built his own business. While he is a dreamer, his wife whom he married in his young age, is not a match. His wife reminds him of the idle village days, always submitting to him, spending her days watching serials. She lacks dominance, lacks the lush vibe of an independent woman which he finds in Priya.

Priya and other girls in the book show us, once involved in this thriving business of sex world, there is no way of getting out of it. Society refuses to take them, family would only take their money. And these women get comfortable giving up their fantasy of marrying a regular guy and settling like any other housewife. Whatever money can buy, is something these women won’t give up. Think of it, money liberates a woman from her husband, from the eyes and mouths of society. Leela would tell Soniaji -

‘When you look at my life,’ she taught me, ‘don’t look at it beside yours. Look at it beside the life of my mother and my sister-in-law who have to take permission to walk down the road.’

A great book to discover the lives of most, the background dancers in the shadow. It’s worth reading and knowing what a life they lead. Amongst misfortune and rainy days, they stand up and laugh. Thanks to Barbara for recommending this to me!