Helen : The Life and Times of an H-Bomb/Jerry Pinto. New Delhi,
Penguin, 2006, vi, 256 p., photographs, (pbk). ISBN 0-14303-124-4.
Helen : The Life and Times of an H-Bomb/Jerry Pinto. New Delhi,
Penguin, 2006, vi, 256 p., photographs, (pbk). ISBN 0-14303-124-4.
Contents: Introduction. 1. The making of an h-bomb-I. 2. The making of an h-bomb-II. 3. The woman who could not care. 4. 'Main gud ki dali'. 5. Good girls, bad girls. 6. The cure of all the sorrows of the world. 7. She was dying to become a good girl. 8. The comic comes courting. 9. Rolled gold versus gold. 10. Fade out, fade in. 11. The making of a legend. 12. The cult of Helen. 13. Acknowledgements. 14. List of photographs. 15. Filmography.
"It is now over two decades since the Hindi-film heroine drove the vamp into extinction, and even longer since the silver screen was ignited by the true Bollywood version of a cabaret. Yet, Helen--nicknamed 'H-Bomb' at the height of her career--continues to rule the popular imagination. Improbably, for a dancer and a vamp, she has become in icon."