debor028

Recently, I came across a link to a song sequence, Chikni Chameli, from a yet to be released film, Agneepath, by the producer/director, Karan Johar. Suspecting a rich fare of music and dance lurking in store a click of the mouse away, my fingers did the salsa. What unfolded was abhorrent and repulsive. Firstly, the title of the song track reeks of overt sexual tones. ‘Chikni,’ a word both in Hindustani and in Urdu language, is an adjective and feminine gender. The classical meaning is greasy or slippery as in loamy soil after rain. However, the slang or vulgarised usage means appealing, attractive, desirable, sleek, sexy, shiny, showy, and slick apart from other regional variations. Nevertheless, it is not very complimentary to call a woman ‘chikini.’ It is a euphemism for carnal desirability – an object of sexual consumption. Another equally important implied reference is to women of fair or white skin . Chameli, a Hindi equivalent of Yasmin in Arabic, is a white jasmine flower k...