Writer Jerry Pinto's take on yesteryear's popular item-girl Helen - whose sensuous dances set the silver screen on fire - traces her cinematic career in a new book.

"Helen: The Life And Times Of An H-Bomb", published by Penguin India, throws light on every aspect of Helen's life - like why did this refugee of French-Burmese parentage succeed as wildly as she did in Bollywood and how could otherwise conservative families sit through, and even enjoy, her cabarets?

Nicknamed 'H-Bomb' at the height of her career, Helen entered films in 1952. She still rules the popular imagination of the cinema-going public though it is more than two decades since she bid adieu to movies.

Via Helen's story, Pinto's narrative examines middle-class Indian morality, the politics of religion, gender and sexuality in popular culture with wit and provocation.

The book also discusses the importance of song, item numbers and the image of the wayward woman in Hindi films.

Mumbai-based Pinto's first book of poems "Asylum" was published in 2004. He is also the author of "Surviving Women".