Quod Erat Demonstrandum. Bollywood glamour has gone global with an international magazine anointing Mallika Sherawat as the sex goddess who 'once again' showcased Cannes as a centre for 'steamy glamour'.

The 'unbuttoned movie glamour' of the so gorgeous, so curvaceous, so genial Ms Sherawat — now pouting, now pirouetting, as though she was to the Red Carpet born — has been compared to the lusty charms of Brigitte Bardot who set the Riviera on fire, almost 50 years ago....When she was just 18 and husband-director Roger Vadim brought her to Cannes with And God Created Woman, the film which was condemned by the Catholic Church's Legion of Decency but which went on to make her Europe's most famous pin-up girl of the mid 20th century.

Till today, she is to Europe what Marilyn Monroe is to America. And may we add — what Mallika Sherawat might end up being for Indiaah!

It isn't really strange that we haven't heard a word about Ms Sherawat's talents in the acting department from anybody who has seen or heard her at Cannes. No spoken or written word, not a single mention about her performance in The Myth, India's first current crossover act. Nevertheless, we applaud her histrionics in the 'other' department.

For Mallika has managed to export Indian oomph unlike any other desi. The West will no longer swoon over Indian curry, tandoori and the Bhangramuffin alone.

To her goes the credit of creating an entirely new and global brand of Indian sensuality: the McIndian oomph which has the Indian choli ending up as even more titillating than the Western bikini. Henceforth, don't be surprised if you see Pamela Anderson parading herself in the sequinned splendour of the haute Indian appendage.

And are we complaining? Nah! Because everybody loves a sex kitten. From her first 30 naked seconds of screen time in her first big hit (And God Created Woman), Bardot has remained an icon for men and women alike.

She — of the just-got-outof-bed-hair and the pronounced pout — may not have been the most intellectual role model but even diehard feminists like Simone De Beauvoir saw her as a symbol of power: as someone who was both 'hunter and prey'.

As that other 'sex goddess', Marilyn Monroe summed up: "A sex symbol becomes a thing, I just hate being a thing. But if I'm going to be a symbol of something, I'd rather have it (be) sex than some other thing we've got symbols of."So, show them more, Sherawat! The applause can only get louder.