A six-yard piece of hydrated cotton. Wrapped around a female form. Nothing could be more sensual. Fellow followers of the damp, wet, soaked, moist, drenched saree (and other tailored and untailored pieces of cotton body-wrappings), I bring you the Wet Saree in its most seductive form. Connoisseurs, join me! Let us embark on a journey to discover the beauty of the female form draped in a piece of unassuming and wet piece of cloth.
In Kadhal Kadhai, the lady in the picture supports herself and her daughter by working as a domestic help. Clearly she does not have access to an umbrella, for she walks through driving rain carrying her daughter along, using her pallu to protect her daughter from the downpour. When she arrives at the home of the sleazy schoolteacher, she is most thoroughly drenched from head to toe. Her cotton saree, light blue when dry, is now a decidedly darker shade. Her cotton blouse is deliciously soaked and shiny, and so is her face and neck. She has an enigmatic smile on her face, perhaps because she has rather enjoyed her rainy walk.
Royal blue, soaked
The saree carries a lot of excess water and is thus heavy and perhaps a little unwieldy. Her pallu barely manages to stay on her left shoulder. The saree, framed by a golden border, has turned into a magnificent shade of luminescent royal blue, while the blouse is a now a beautiful shiny and dark midnight blue. A single strand of wet hair is loose over her face, and the red bindi and the nose stud highlight the face. Her attitude is that of casual relaxation, as if getting drenched is an everyday matter for her.
A good pose
Later on, most of the water has sluiced off her, and she is now in a more normal wet situation. Like one is after spending about five minutes or so out of the rain, with the saree and the blouse now resolutely clinging to her, and accentuating her various shapely curves. She puts her kid down, grabs her dangling pallu, swishes it around her waist and confidently tucks it in [see top]. The bare arms with a sheen of rainwater, the puffed out breasts and the beautifully moist pallu come together like a dream. The bare moist midriff, the shape of her spine and the curve of her pose, the blouse fitting so snugly it can almost be a part of her body, and the unforgiving saree draped tightly around leaving precious little to imagination. That is a good pose, good enough to be poetry.
Damp & workin'
In
the final segment, we see her retrieve a broom and begin sweeping. Her
attitude is as always relaxed and easygoing, as if doing her daily
chores in soaked clothes is an everyday certainty. The way she adjusts
the broom handle shows that she has been doing this for quite a while.
Indian domestic maids usually wear cotton sarees to work for three primary reasons. One, cotton sarees are cheap and easily and widely available. Two, they are a comfortable wear in the hot and soggy Indian summers, allowing enough air to circulate to keep the wearer cool and soaking up sweat and then drying slowly which leads to an additional cooling effect. Third, and most importantly, cotton sarees are the best bet if one gets caught in a downpour, and then has to work wearing the wet saree and blouse.
The lonesome raindrop
p.s. We sign this post off with perhaps the most beautiful shot of all. As
she bends, the light catches a lone waterdrop clinging to her chin,
creating a mesmerizing effect. Nowhere during this sequence does she
actually try and dry herself, and her indifference towards the raindrop
highlights it.
Gundello Godari has a few wet scenes, but the one near the end with Lakshmi Manchu trying desperately to get her saviour to the hospital in a rickshaw through the driving rain takes the cake. She is wearing a non-cotton olive green saree, an everyday black cotton blouse, and a black longskirt with red floral patterns. When the rain soaks her from head to toe, the saree darkens somewhat, while the blouse sticks to her body and shines from the shooting lights.
Olive green. Sodden. Clingy.
The previous scene of Manchu wheeling the rickshaw into the hospital premises was shot from a wide angle, and thus had the freedom of showing the rain pelting down on the hapless protagonist. This scene however, shot from a much closer distance, would not have worked with a full-blown downpour. It is apparent that, although she looks to be getting soaked further in the rain here, the sprinklers are actually off here. The water sluicing down Manchu's hair, braid, blouse, back, and saree are that of a person having just come in from the rain, and not actually standing in it. The sodden pallu wraps around Manchu and clings to her, while the blouse both shines and shapes itself to Mandhu's well toned body. All in all, a beautiful example of a just-drenched shot in a very non-sensual context.
The telugu movie Gundello Godari has a scene very near the end in which Lakshmi Manchu frantically brings an injured man to a hospital in a rickshaw. In driving rain. Manchu is wearing an olive green saree with a very appropriate black cotton everyday blouse and a black long skirt with red floral patterns. The saree darkens somewhat when soaked, and the blouse reflects light well. There is a very nice sequence indoors when Manchu runs around tries to get medical help, all the while in the soaked saree and skirt, which very effectively wraps around her body, accentuating it as well restricting movement. There are quite a few sequences that invite analysis, but for this post I shall restrict myself to the end of the action when Manchu, dejected and looking utterly worn out, steps out of the hospital back into the rain. Her saree had by this time dried out somewhat, and had a damp look. As she walks back out, the green fabric darkening as the water drops hit them can be seen quite clearly. The black blouse also almost immediately takes on a sheen. A lovely example of slow soaking.
