Mallika's 'Talli' song raises Hackles, Eyebrows and what-not 
By Subhash K. Jha, July 16, 2008 - 11:56 IST
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She's done it again. After raising helm-lines in conservative Chennai for the music launch of Kamal Haasan's film, Mallika Sherawat is again busy raising eyebrows, this time for a song that, hic hic, celebrates the spirit of….well, of the spirits! The bottled kind.
The promos of Pritish Nandy Communications' Ugly Aur Pagli show a high-as-a-kite Mallika Sherawat singing 'Main Talli Main Talli Ho Gayi', meaning 'I am drunk' … And the moral army is already on the job.
Reportedly, the songs intoxicating content and that too showing a young free-spirited girl in a state of uncontrollable inebriation (a sort of 'Aaj Phir Jeene Ki Tamanna Hai' on speed dial) is being questioned in the highest quarters.
This isn't the first sozzled sizzler to hit the screen. In fact, the country's Nightingale Lata Mangeshkar sang such melodious memorabilia as 'Kaise Rahun Chup' (Inteqaam), 'Jaane Kya Pilaya Tune' (Jugnu) and 'Han Ji Han Main Sharaab Pee Hai' (Seeta Aur Geeta) decades ago.
In fact, as early as the 1960s, we had the immortal Meena Kumari stumbling drunk all over the place and singing 'Sharabi Sharabi Mera Naam Ho Gaya' in the film Chandan Ka Palna.
Back then ladies were allowed to have more fun. Today the moral police is already on PNC's trail for promoting alcoholism in the 'Talli' song. Ever the iconoclast Pritish Nandy shrugs his shoulder. "Let them say what they like. Firstly, 'Talli' is a zany fun song. Yes, Mallika Sherawat is saying she's high in the song. But she could be high on life. Or she could be high on Coke…I mean the soft drink," he chuckles.
Then he stops short to get sober. "Very honestly, we need to stop wagging our fingers at other people. Why can't a woman lose control in a pub and freak out? Is that the prerogative of men only? I neither drink nor smoke. But I see nothing wrong with people who do. As long as you don't drive when you drink, what's wrong with having a few drinks and creating some masti?"
Pritish Nandy says he is in principle opposed to any kind of moral censorship. "Don't smoke don't drink. Don't do 'it' behind the bushes. Bah! Let people do what they like even if they seem to create a nuisance, so what? We all have the right to do what we like. And the 'Talli' song is about having fun."
Problem is, anything Mallika does from wearing a short dress to getting drunk on screen, creates news. And it looks the 'Talli' song is all set to give Mallika's moral police a rum…sorry, run for their money.
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