Kajra Re

Kajra Re is a popular Bollywood track that becomes the signature performance piece of Tarannum Khan, the pin-up girl of suburban Mumbai's Deepa Bar and Restaurant, and a recurring motif in Mafia Queens of Mumbai that links the performative power of women in the city's underworld. The song's appearance marks the climactic moment of Tarannum's nightly dance, where her movements captivate patrons and draw showers of money, establishing her as the crown of Mumbai's nightlife before her arrest for an international cricket betting racket. The track also resonates with other performances in the book, from Gangubai's defiant public speech to Monica Bedi's reality TV plea, illustrating how women use spectacle, dress, and voice to command attention and assert agency in a world that criminalizes them.

The Song as Tarannum's Signature Performance

At the Deepa Bar and Restaurant, the evening follows a predictable rhythm: patrons, money-laden businessmen, diamond merchants, gangsters, industrialists, and celebrities, sit in a semi-conscious alcoholic daze while girls in shimmering lehenga cholis gyrate to loud Bollywood music. The dancers make eye-contact and gestures toward their chosen prey, their movements growing bolder with every song, and admirers approach them with garlands of 100-rupee notes. But half-an-hour in, the music suddenly veers to the popular Bollywood track Kajra Re, the lights grow dimmer, and a girl draped in a glittering translucent pink sari with a cleavage-revealing blouse cavorts onto the floor. Just like the Pied Piper, she manages to draw the attention of each and every one towards her, and the other girls suddenly seem like extras in comparison.

There is a roar in the crowd when she raises her arms and moves her hips first to the right, then the left, before she begins to dance. When the beat of the song quickens, she has her admirers in a trance. She rotates her shoulders in a small circular motion and waves her hands, while heaving her breasts forwards. She also lip-syncs the words of the song with suggestive expressions and spares no one with her lascivious winks. There is nothing extraordinary about her; she has long black hair, pale wheatish skin, and is only as pretty as the other girls, yet no one can take their eyes off her. In no time, 500 and 1,000-rupee notes begin to fly like a deck of cards in her direction, while the other bar girls continue swaying on the sidelines, envious of her for grabbing all the attention. Like her melodic name, she has captivated everyone with her tune.

The Performer and Her World

Tarannum Khan was the crown of Mumbai's nightlife until she was arrested for her links to an international cricket betting racket. At the age of twenty-four, Tarannum was no less popular than any Bollywood starlet, a high-profile bar girl who allegedly made over Rs 1.5 to Rs 3 lakh every day, and attracted a clientele that comprised the affluent and the famous. Her performance to Kajra Re was the centerpiece of this nightly spectacle, the moment when her fame and earning power peaked. The song, with its suggestive lyrics and catchy beat, provided the perfect vehicle for her to display her skill, and her ability to draw the attention of every patron in the room was a testament to her mastery of the performance.

The world of the dance bar is one of visual gratification, where patrons spend fortunes for a few moments of entertainment. The girls are dressed skimpily and heavily made-up, sharing a faint resemblance to big-screen starlets, and they dance like slaves for their patrons. The performance is a transaction: the dancers choose their prey, the admirers approach with garlands of money, and the girls lean forward but remain within the confines of the floor. As they are garlanded, their soft silky hair brushes the skin of their patrons, who then express their approval by showering them with money. Tarannum's performance to Kajra Re is the apotheosis of this exchange, the moment when the 'big maal' finally arrives and the crowd's anticipation is rewarded.

Performance as a Recurring Motif in the Book

The power of Kajra Re as a performance piece resonates with other moments of spectacle in Mafia Queens of Mumbai, where women use their bodies, dress, and voice to command attention and assert agency. Gangubai, the renowned brothel madam of Kamathipura, is described as a five-foot-tall woman dressed in a white saree, who gets out of her car and climbs the steps leading to Madhu's room, while other sex workers bow in respect when they see her enter the building. Her public speech at Azad Maidan, where she opens with the line 'I am a gharwali (a brothel madam) not a ghar todnewali (home wrecker)', is another form of performance, where she uses her words to defend her profession and challenge the stigma attached to it. Like Tarannum's dance, Gangubai's speech is a calculated act of self-presentation, designed to win over a hostile audience.

Similarly, Monica Bedi's appearance on the reality show Bigg Boss 2 in 2008 is a performance of vulnerability and redemption. Within a few episodes, Monica managed to woo the other fourteen contestants and the audience. In one of the episodes, she broke down and said she needed the prize money because she was leading a hand-to-hand existence, claiming that people think she has a lot of money but it is not true, and that she needs the money to buy a home because nobody gives her a house on rent as people are scared of her. Her performance on national television won the heart of millions, including Congress Member of Parliament Sanjay Nirupam, who promised to give her an apartment in the upmarket residential colony of Lokhandwala in Andheri. These performances, whether on a dance floor, a podium, or a reality show, are strategic acts of self-presentation that allow these women to navigate and resist the criminalization and stigma imposed on them.

The Song's Significance in the Narrative

Kajra Re functions as a symbol of the allure and danger of the underworld in Mafia Queens of Mumbai. The song's appearance in the narrative marks the peak of Tarannum's fame, the moment when she is at the height of her power, before her arrest and the subsequent unraveling of her life. The performance is a moment of pure spectacle, where the bar girl becomes the center of attention and the object of desire, but it is also a moment of vulnerability, as she is performing for patrons who are willing to spend their fortunes for a few moments of visual gratification. The song thus encapsulates the double-edged nature of the women's lives in the book: they are powerful performers who command attention and money, but they are also trapped in a world that exploits and criminalizes them.

The book itself, as described in its praise, peels back Mumbai's thin veneer of civilization, presenting thirteen true stories of black marketeers, prostitution ringleaders, and trained assassins. Kajra Re, as a recurring motif, ties these stories together, highlighting the theatricality of the women's lives and their use of performance as a means of survival and resistance. The song is not just a piece of music; it is a symbol of the power and peril of the underworld, and of the women who navigate it with skill and determination.