The wet pallu

Grab. Swish. Tuck.

Wet and shiny

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.