The crowd outside Regent cinema before a show of The Dirty Picture. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Dec. 2: The entire state capital today went Ooh la la...

The entire city, it seemed, had gathered outside Regent and Cinepolis. The wait for The Dirty Picture was over. All shows went houseful and the audience left the cinema with a promise to return. Vidya Balan, obviously, was the cynosure of attention.

“This girl is killing,” said Prashant Kumar. He had come all the way from Danapur and said he would not mind covering the entire distance again to see Silk.

The film, inspired by the life of south Indian actress Vijayalakshimi, popularly known as Silk Smitha, received an overwhelming response on the first day in the theatres of Patna with 18 shows, five in Regent and 13 in Cinepolis.

It was deafening when, barely 25 minutes into the film, the song, which has been doing the rounds across the country, started. While many started shouting, others stood up to applaud and some fell down from their chairs in an attempt to dance along with Vidya.

There was not a single person who found the film uninteresting. “The film is quite bold. All the actors have performed well but Vidya was unparallelled. I salute her for giving such a performance. Vidya Balan is considered to be a serious artiste and she has done justice to her role,” said Nirmala Devi, a resident of Bakarganj.

In fact, there was barely any scene in the movie featuring Silk that went without applause from the audience.

The film is about Reshma who is later named Silk by a film producer, who desperately wants a hit. The producer chooses a young girl who is extremely ambitious and attractive. The Ooh la la euphoria returned once again during Silk’s “extremely bold” interactions with Suryakant, played by Naseeruddin Shah.

Even though the movie ends on a sad note, the makers, actors and Vidya in particular, left the audience enthralled.

Silk is first dumped by Suryakant and then by Ramakant, played by Tusshar Kapoor. Ebrahim, played by Emraan Hashmi, was also the focus of the movie. He apparently hates Silk, but in the end, he is the one who falls in love with the actress.

The viewers said the bold dialogues were “very much required” in the movie. “I must say it was a bold attempt by the director Milan Luthria. The music and dialogues have made this movie a hit. I would not feel shy to admit that the extra show of skin was very adroitly done. It was not vulgar, yet it is so sexy and attractive. Vidya simply rocked,” Rajesh Thakur, who watched the film at Cinepolis, said.

The hall owners were elated. Suman Kumar Sinha, the owner of Regent theatre, said: “We have received a great response on the first day of the movie. All the shows till Sunday have been booked.”

Meanwhile, the ones who could not sneak into any of the 18 shows on the first day left disappointed, only fretting what they must have missed.