I have long known that Jerry Pinto and I share the exact same taste in movies - especially as he wrote the book on Helen. (And I mean literally wrote the book on Helen.

He has a new essay up on working ladies of movies past that is worth a read.

There was a time when, Bollywood would have us believe, that you couldn’t walk down the street without bumping into some lovely lady peddling her wares. Get your mind out of Kamathipura; she wasn’t always selling her body.

Basanti Taangewaali never got a song to herself until she found herself in the Valley of Broken Glass Bottles but you get the picture. This was a working woman. She was often making an honest living and this meant she had to tell you that she was willing to sharpen your knife for you. (Your mind is wandering again. This is not a metaphoric piece.)

He then goes on to say:

These women have now vanished. There is no room for the underclass in Bollywood, which is obsessed with foreign locations. How can anyone sell gajras in the middle of Prague on location?

Besides the ever present courtesans - Rani, Rani, and Rani - recent films have shown us Vidya Balan and Preity Zinta as radio DJs (Lage Raho Munnabhai and Salaam Namaste, respectively), Rani as a doctor in Saathiya, Konkona Sen work in advertising in LCMD, Lara Dutta was a journalist in Partner, and who can forget Arshad's kick ass lady-cop girlfriend in Waisa Bhi Hota Hai, Part II, played by Sandhya Mridul.

Instead of the lady selling her wares on the street, I would love to see more lady gangsters. Nothing pleases me more than to stumble across Pratima Kazmi (or somebody) cutting off some thug's finger because he didn't deliver the goods on time or running a gang from her jail cell.

Any lady gangster movies you can recommend me? Hmmm?