With the material girl turning a cool 56 this month (16^th August), she is still in her element, from her pulsating music, stage antics to her many boyfriends and marriages, Madonna is one superstar who just cannot be ignored. Her latest album ‘Hard Candy’ has some groovy music and a lot of hit material too.

‘Madonna: In Bed With Madonna’ is a documentary cum concert picturisation of the star spiced up with some gossip, a few fleeting appearances by other celebrities and much more. The videos here shows the ageing star in a much younger avatar. Videos from the1980s, with many teenage and younger girls adopting the Madonna look of messy, badly-dyed hair, neon bracelets, black lace bras, and white lace gloves is all there. Songs to watch out for are ‘Papa Don't Preach’, ‘Like a Prayer’ and lots more taken from her concert 1990 Blonde Ambition tour which is the basis of this documentary.

The film records Madonna's concert choreography and backstage shots. However, the film appears to have no overall direction to it as its loosely put together making it appear as though someone has collected a couple of film snippets and strung it together. While there are a few lengthy concert scenes, the focus is entirely on the personal (concert tour) life, and not the music of self-styled feminist, artist.

While at times the scenes seems remarkably candid and honest, such as when she visits her mother's grave, we also see her convening pre-show prayer meetings with her dancers, at one time getting emotional and teary eyed, but the other side also sees her cavorting on beds with her dance troupe, horsing around with her celebrity mates. One shot even shows her waist up in the full monty.

The quality of this video is bad, the color seems very little at times and so you have 75 per cent of the film in Black and White which is truly awful. The shots are not that sharp and even the concerts are not well reproduced. It is more grainy at times. The dialogue quality is also poor, again due to the source material, but the audio sync is reasonable.

Compared to the Madonna we know now, this video appears to be quite dated and dull.Certain shots depict Madonna as being bitchy, bossy, insulting, demanding, materialistic, spoilt, childish, and petty. But that’s the bad side of her, what about the side that shows Madonna as the successful and savvy businesswoman?

Going to the diva we know, Madonna was born Madonna Louise Ciccone in Michigan, in (born August 16, 1958) 1958 and took up dancing while at school She moved to New York City in the late 1970s and by 1980 she was writing songs and performing in clubs in New York. A local DJ helped her gain a recording contract with Warner Brothers in 1982. Madonna's self-titled debut album was released in 1983, and it became a dance floor hit. The first single, ‘Holiday’, was followed by the hit singles ‘Borderline’ and ‘Lucky Star’. Madonna capitalized on this success with her second album, ‘Like a Virgin’, which quickly went platinum with the hits ‘Material Girl’, ‘Into the Groove’ and the title track all which are dance favorites. Today she is the numero uno diva in the pop world.

    -- By Verus Ferreira