PURITY LESSONS FROM THE MOVIE, THE DIRTY PICTURE - Duke Jeyaraj

The movie, The Dirty Picture, starring Vidya Balan, created a tremendous buzz in India and
across the World. This movie grossed Rs.50 Crores within one week of its release. It had the
biggest opening ever for a woman-oriented film in the history of Indian Cinema, reported The
Times of India (December 9, 2011). Can we glean out lessons for purity from a movie named,
The Dirty Picture? Yes we can! Heres how:
1. The Lesson About INNER CRAVING. This movie is obviously based on the life of Silk
Smitha, though there is an explicit denial of this by the movie makers. Can it be a mere
coincidence that the movie released on the same day the real Silk Smitha was born December
2nd ? As one website put it, (This movie) is an unofficial biopic around the life and upheavals
of Southern sex symbol Silk Smitha. What was the end of Silk Smithas life like? She
committed suicide by hanging from a ceiling fan in the bedroom of her home in Saligramam,
Chennai on September 23, 1996, when she was just 36 years of age, leaving a suicide note
that talked about several failures and financial difficulties. The years of having men lust over
her body through her erotic performances on screen, the years of having affairs with several
men, the years of alcohol consumption, the years of making a quick buck from the movie world
by compromising her moral values, did not satisfy the inner longings of her soul. Vidya Balan,
talking about the character Silk she played in the movie, The Dirty Picture says, She has no
restraint. Some may feel that she is shameless. I think she is a girl who wants to enjoy the
pleasure of life at every opportunity. Whatever she feels, she says it and whatever she wants to
do, she does it This sort of bold behavior left her in the cold - feeling empty, dejected and
depressed. It left her reeling in loneliness that she decided to end it all.
Silk Smithas in the Bible!
In the Bible, we get to meet a male Silk Smitha. Bemused? Dont be. I want to refer to
Ahitophel, the counselor to kings of Israel as the male Silk Smitha. While Silk Smitha was the
most famous item number dancer of the South India Film Industry in the 1980s, Ahitophel was
the most trusted advisor to kings of Israel in those times. Both folk reached the pinnacle of
their professions in their times. Having reached the pinnacle of their careers, both suddenly
faced failures. While Silk Smitha faced competition from other item-number dances, Ahitophels
advice was ignored. Ahitophels sad end came after he committed suicide, just like Silks the
Bible reveals (2 Sam 17:23). Unable to face failures in their professional lives, both of them
tragically ended their lives. What Silk Smitha and Ahitophel did not perhaps realize when they
committed suicide was that they couldnt really kill themselves. The real persons inside this duo
- their souls continued to live long after their body became lifeless following their shocking
suicides. Yes, each one of us has a soul inside of us which will go on to live forever and ever.
This is what the Bible teaches. God has placed, eternity in our hearts this is the teaching of
the Bible (Eccl 3:11).
In the Bible, we meet yet another Silk Smitha we can see the woman from Samaria that
Jesus met at a well that way. The woman from Samaria perhaps thought to herself that if she
drank the water called love of a man she would find true satisfaction in her life. She was
married to five different men, one after the other. Marriage number 1, perhaps failed and she
sought solace in Marriage number 2. Then Marriage number 2, too failed. This went on till
Marriage number 5. After each such sour relationship, she became frustrated and sincerely
believed another husband who was different would make her life ultimately happy. But she
could not find that elusive happiness. She could not find in sin, what she entered sin to find. Sin
did not satisfy her souls inner longings! When she met Jesus at the well, she was in her
relationship number 6 a relationship that involved living-in with a man, a relationship that
involved, most certainly, sex outside the boundaries of marriage. What Jesus told her was ineffect this: If you drink the water of sex, you will thirst again. If you drink the water I give you
(in other words, if you have a living, daily relationship with me) then you will never thirst
again!
I believe, we meet another Silk Smitha in the Bible in the person who authored the book of
Ecclesiastes who was King Solomon, perhaps. I tried cheering myself with wine, he writes
(Eccl 2:3). In the movie, The Dirty Picture, Silk played by Vidya Balan, drowns herself drinking
alcoholic drinks when the going in her personal and professional life become tough and rough.
But wine, could not ultimately bring meaning into his life, the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes
ultimately discovered to his utter dismay (Eccl 2:11). Life under the sun was meaningless
unless one has a relationship with the one above the Sun even God! that was the message

he tried to convey in this key Bible book (Eccl 2:25). Silk, too, discovered that wine-addiction,
ultimately left her only to whine, one fine day. The beer habit, instead of cheering her,
irreversibly wove the option of suicide into her thoughts, and drove her deep into bottomless
well of depression.
The Savior for all Silk Smithas!
Yes, you could chase all the pleasures in the world in a desperate effort to discover happiness
and peace, like Silk did. But the pleasures of the World will not offer true happiness and peace
you will soon discover that. Only a daily, deep, relationship with Jesus the one who died on
the Cross for each one of us will give us true happiness, peace, meaning and purpose. The
punishment that brings us true peace was upon Jesus while he hung on the Cross, the Bible
declares (in Isaiah 53). Silk Smitha ended her life deeply disappointed with all what soft porn
movies, sex in front of the camera, illicit relationships, lots of money, overdose of alcohol, etc,
could have ever offered her. If you chase the very things she chased sex, silver, soul-mates,
Scotch, stardom, etc - or those of that kind, you too will be disappointed. Come to Christ, the
one who explicitly said that he came to give you life life to the full (John 10:10)! And you will
not be disappointed! And you will find true peace and lasting joy. A loving relationship with
Jesus, the only God who revealed himself in the flesh during the first Christmas, would be
enough to satisfy the inner longings of the human soul, the Bible reveals (John 14:5,6).
Whats more, when you come to Jesus in true repentance, your sins even if they uncountable
and even if they are unprintable will be purged clean through the blood he shed for us on the
Cross. This is a promise of God in the Bible who never tells a lie (cf. Isa 1:18).
If we pursue a living relationship with Jesus in our lives, our soul will be joyous on this side of
eternity while we are still on this earth. Not only that we will join Jesus after death to live with
him forever after our soul will be reunited with our resurrected bodies. On the other hand, If we
rejected Jesus, our souls, along with its resurrected bodies, will go to a place of torment that
Jesus often talked about called Hell (See Daniel 12:2).. This is the teaching of the Bible. So,
what would you decide to do? What choice would you make? Would you reject Christ, live a life
of living hell and go to literal hell? Or, would you live in Christ, experience the peace and joy he
alone can give, and go to heaven to enjoy him, forever? I hope your choice will be wise.
2. The lesson about EXTERNAL COSTUMES. Vidya Balan, the leading lady of The Dirty
Picture movie, has worn itsy bitsy clothes, generous cleavage-revealing blouses (according to
www.hindustantimes.com and www.timesofindia.com). Vidya Balan said this in an interview
talking about the character, Silk, the character she played in the movie, The Dirty Picture: She
feels that my body is great and people like to see it so why not show it. She is not selfconscious. She does not hesitate. (as quoted by www.rediff.com). What would God think of this
kind of external attire that reveals the body more than hiding it, which has become increasingly
common place in our planet? We need to turn to the Bible, Gods word in human words, to
know the answer for this oft-asked but rarely-answered question. There are those who
immediately say, God cares only about my heart what I am on the inside! He doesnt care
about what I wear on the outside! Well. Well. Well. It is quite true that God cares the internal
condition of our heart rather than our external appearance. Think of what God told Prophet
Samuel the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the
LORD looks on the heart (I Sam 16:7). But that does not mean it does not matter how one
dresses. In the same Bible where read that the Lord looks on the heart we read that our
unpresentable parts (we know what those parts are) are (to be) treated with greater modesty
(I Cor 12:23, ESV). Is it sad that, in our present world, the unpresentable body parts are
treated with lesser modesty in clear violation of both Gods expectations and the conscienceinscribed opinion that a woman nakedness belongs to the eyes of her husband alone (which the
Bible also explicitly teaches in Leviticus 18 read that chapter in the KJV)! Our dressing can
reflect popular fashion it can indeed be modern as long as it is modest. This is a clear
directive from the word of God (I Tim 2:9). We must not allow the world to squeeze us into its
mould (Rom 12:2, JB Phillips Version). That God would be pretty upset when revealing attire is
worn can be understood by this, his statement to his spiritual wife recorded in the Bible: But
now bring charges against Israelyour mother for she is no longer my wife, and I am no
longer her husband. Tell her to remove the prostitutes makeup from her face and the clothing
that exposes her breasts (Hos 2:2, NLT).

Going by all the Scriptures that have been quoted above, the wearing of revealing outfits and
desirously and deliberately watching those that wear them (unless the person you are watching
is your spouse in a private setting!) is something which clearly displeases God and is a sin
against him. And these should be shunned. Yes, these should be given a skip. Of course, these
should be avoided at all costs. When we resolve to be pure even in areas such as this, there is a
big blessing awaiting us and it is a guilt-free conscience and a stress-free marital bond. Stephen
Arterburn talks about this. He writes, You are sexually pure when no sexual gratification comes
from anyone or anything but your wife (including from a lingering, lustful, long, look at semiclad Vidya Balan of The Dirty Picture movie, I would say, at this point). To attain sexual
purity...we must starve our eyes of the bowls of sexual gratification that come from outside of
marriage. When you starve your eyes and eliminate junk sex from your life, youll deeply
crave the real sexual food that God authorizes you to have your wife! (Every Mans Battle:
Winning the War on Sexual Temptation One Victory at a Time, p. 138, with my imputs). Job
says, I made a solemn pact with myself never to undress a girl with my eyes (Job 31:1, The
Message). Shall we take the cue from Job about whose purity, even God testified positively
about to Satan, here, and start deliberately bouncing off our eyes from sexually-stimulating
sources, enabled by fruit of Holy Spirit which is self-control, the way we bounce off our eyes
when we see an electric welding fire arc? And shall we truly say, I made a solemn pact with
myself never to desirously look at the person of the opposite gender whos not my actual
spouse, in a state of total undress or semi-undress, with my eyes? If we did, our Maker would
be mighty pleased. If we did that, we would have learnt a crucial purity lesson from the movie,
The Dirty Picture!