The Kama Sutra in the 21st century, that is what Sunny Leone is for many people. Yet outside that name is a woman named Karenjit with killer business sense, self branding and who is very sweet and caring human being, qualities that all but make up for her cringeworthy BAD acting in her films in India. At least she can lip-synch and dance like the professional she is and she clearly enjoys it, so I have no qualms with her on that point.
In my personal opinion Sunny is both a male as well as a female fantasy. She is a powerful woman who is open about the fact that she has worked in the porn industry, the fact that she is sexy and she knows it as well as her sexuality in general. That kind of openness about herself is freeing to see from someone who the word ‘sexy’ is mostly stamped to as well as all the Madonna vs Whore and Vamp tropes from those with limited brains.
The conservatives and the schools might worry (indeed she (as well as her songs and movies) have been blamed for many actions against women that haven’t held water, because she has nothing to do with it! It is the men’s choice to do those actions in the first place and yet a woman still gets blamed for them!! That infuriates me!), but in the end she is her own person with her own career. If being a woman and being sexual is scary then I think it is best one looks at oneself in the mirror and see that inside is a little hypocrite unable to embrace complexity and humanity in others.
(sorry for the rant, the documentary has interviews with some of these people and they get me heated up and not in a Sunny Leone way)
(Listen! And be warned the song is very catching!)
Now the 2016 documentary directed by Dilip Mehta is kind of meh, in terms of the timeline which at one point gets me kinda confused as to the topic of conversation she and her husband were having as well the story it want’s to tell. It wants to tell us about Sunny and her life from the beginning, but also get pieces of the people working for her, contrasting with the real non-famous people in the streets of Mumbai. It is a bit jarring, but it is also the reality. Sunny is a fantasy, but Karenjit is real, they both just happen to be the same person. Gladly it soon goes back on track with her story and rise.
(I know this looks like the worst thing ever, and the film is worse in a whole another level (couldn’t get past the 5 minute mark when trying to watch it out of curiosity), but this song is somewhat of a small guilty pleasure. I KNOW it disrespects the original and is all kinds of trash if one compares it, but its lighthearted and not painful to the ear like all the other songs in the movie are)
I recommend watching this documentary if you are interested in Bollywood and how the stardom works there, along with the obvious appeal of Sunny and her life. There is some full frontal nudity, but its only there a few times and her story is more important than the bodies at show. This documentary is for the curious, you might not see it now or never.
(Her (somewhat) recent cameo as an Item Girl in the very good action crime drama film Raees with Shahrukh. This is a song that I love, catchy, as well as entertaining)
Thank you for reading!
The Little Corner 