" I'M A GOOD GIRL, I AM".

Hardly do we associate the larger than life gold mine of cinematic glamour with such an affable, glorious and pearlescent persona as that of evergreen screen legend Audrey Hepburn. Here I deduce the enigma and love for the timeless princess who played  cynosure of all eyes to perfection in Hollywood's heydays.

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If looks alone could kill( and I mean that completely as a positive hyperbole) , Audrey Hepburn's impish, fairy like command would have ruptured many a men's heart in her time and continues to mesmerise generations thereafter, gender no bar. Convention dictates that movie icons are unattainable entities, masters and crowning monarchs of their vicarious realities who stand head and shoulders above a common ideal. True as it is, what then made Hepburn such a sweet, accessible presence, never tripping on her status as acting royalty or falling head over heels for industry excesses? May be, it was her million dollar smile, swan like features, adorable character traits or her success: above all, her humility scored her universal love and approval for posterity. Idol worship was not where her charm looked at, rather audiences identified with her varying degrees of expression of the dreams and aspirations of 20th century, the mores and affiliation to middle class morality as well as upper brow chimera of the swish rich set.

However, her glamorous moves also bespeak an era's stylised splendour. It was her individuated, singularly populist poise which ultimately got juxtaposed with her humble beginnings as a wannabe starlet with hopes to make it through in the clamour of Hollywood's frenzied assembly line. Thus her metamorphosis into a hugely influential Cinderella like lifestyle amidst glittering arc lights and celebrity of unprecedented proportions makes complete sense, only in this case it was her talent alone which worked the magic wand for her burgeoning fortunes and screen prosperity.

In her career defining role in Breakfast at Tiffany's , her style statement became the stuff of legends. Her iconic images and stills in a little black dress(L.B.D), a fashion staple since, with a cigarette holder held close to her lips and pearls decking her neck, perfectly fit her petite portfolio. Even today, fashion icons have been unable to unseat the touchstone set up by her oeuvre. But if the screen was her rightful terra firma,her persona went beyond the obvious. Her contemporaries were no less power packed in terms of their outreach. Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor had the world captivated with every collective strut and swoon, boldly using their sensual appeal to further enigmatise spectators and their colourful personal lives almost always occupied centrestage, not that it was an aspect which came independent of the frills attached with showbiz. The thing is, Audrey was on the other end of the spectrum. Her personal life was positively uncluttered and devoid of a single black feather to her cap, her karma did the talking.

As one of her famous lines" Im a good girl, I am" go, she was the perennial good girl of the global film industry . No wonder then some of the greatest roles of the classic era were handed to her able grasp. The best continues to be her petulant, sprightly portrayal of a dreamy eyed yet ever so charming New York socialite Holly Golightly in the screen adaptation of Truman Capote's eternally peppy romantic comedy Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961). Her live in the moment mantra has been emulated time and again but never with the subtlety of purpose she espoused. It was this originality that defines lasting worth and Hepburn was no exception. Holly Golightly was a landmark primarily because of her materialistic pursuits and veneer of big city decadence, the babe lost in the concrete jungle holding on to the last straw to sustain herself without the onus of any substantial monetary or emotional support. In a man's world, she used every opportunity to keep her head up, attempting to latch on to every and any rich squeeze to chase her American Dream. Nerve ends of a phony pseudo sophisticated societal mesh and its vain absurdities were actually humanised by her as seen through the eyes of a sensitive writer Paul Varjac(played by George Peppard) who becomes her confidante.  She unravels in front of his eyes as a sweetly vulnerable sweetheart, offsetting her past as small town girl by her maiden name of Lula Mae who married a middle aged man with children and deserted him to escape a future of inert mundanity. She maintained her incorruptible innocence and inherent playfulness when she could have easily interpreted her as a shrewish archetype. It was this universal grace which made me a fan and look back fondly at her charisma.

This clash between the fairytale trappings of luxury and the grim reality of have nots inching towards social recognition was a recurring motif of some of her best roles, in which she was the leading lady standing up to her own dignity and the ways of the world. So in Sabrina, she was a chauffeur's daughter who floors two affluent brothers to fall for her, all the while tip toeing around the obvious class structure while in Roman Holiday, she was a British royal escaping from the upper lipped destiny handpicked for her by gallivanting around a beauteous Rome with a reporter (Gregory Peck) to experience true blue freedom rather than the blue blooded version she is wont to accept blindly. It is this distillation of authentic concerns which resulted in her swift and steady transformation into Eliza Dolittle, a cockney flower girl chosen by a prickly linguistics professor to be an experiment in personal change and instrument of social upgradation in My Fair Lady, a cheerful adaptation of G.B Shaw's immortal drama Pygmalion. I had the good fortune of watching it a few months ago and let me tell you she had me fascinated throughout with her ageless, peerless display of pride, righteousness and self esteem as the girl who is meant to be Professor Higgins' pet project, an uncouth commoner, who with the power of fine speech and mannerisms, would win the hearts of London's highbrow crowd and get passed off as a lady, which she does marvellously. But not before she sweeps us off our feet with her cockney rendition, wild comic timing, especially the iconic lines,"I'm a good girl, I am", and her tragic underpinning of an individual whose identity will always be mired in her class. The magical moments from that movie which will stay with me forever are parts where she makes her debut in London society and makes an indelible mark with her grace, poise and tact and her bright eyed wonder invested in the performance of the song"I could have danced all night".

Hepburn, simply put, was an embodiment of an era which upheld innocence and true value of humane goodness. True to her self, she retired into the picturesque climes of the Alps in Switzerland, raised and nurtured a healthy family life and let the glory go for the majesty of being in the company of kindred until her last breath. I am pretty sure if she is overlooking the entertainment capital that she turned into a fashionable and genuinely comely Wonderland, she is shining as the brightest star around. Audrey Hepburn and her legacy is one for the ages.