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Q - Why don't the characters kiss on the mouth?
OK, sometimes they do. In the 1933 "Karma," Devika Rani and Himansu Rai shared a long full-mouth kiss, with the woman on top. But these are rare exceptions. The typical Bollywood sex or love scene has, for 70 years, been nothing but a lip-tease: either an urgent hug that one might give Mom or a series of prissy kisses on the face, strategically missing the lips — to quote the title of the latest Mani Rathnam film, "A Peck on the Cheek." (In Rathnam's 1995 "Bombay," Hindi hero Arvind Swamy tells his Muslim beloved Manisha Koirala, "The quicker we marry, the sooner I kiss you.")
The ever-helpful bollywhat.com website, which has the answers to many other Indi-movie FAQs, offers this reason for osculatory obfuscation: "Ideas of morality differ widely from group to group. Why include a kiss when you can easily leave it out and avoid the risk of offending customers?" Granted that Indian movies are shown in Muslim countries with stricter social standards, but since a film is often released in different versions at different lengths, why not permit the occasional lip-lock? It is the visual metaphor for passion the world over.
In this year's semi-steamy "Jism" (that's right, American readers, and the word means the same in Hindi), supermodels Bipashu Basu and John Abraham finally smooch up a storm an hour-and-a-quarter into the film. This low-budget bodice-ripper — which is still way tamer than any of U.S. cable's late-night erotic series, or for that matter Mira Nair's 1996 "Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love" — proved a surprise hit in India. So, of course, other producers will now be inspired to tilt at the censors and go racy. But they'll be fighting a silly, endearing prohibition that has held fairly firm for most of a century.
Quote:
In this year's semi-steamy "Jism" (that's right, American readers, and the word means the same in Hindi)
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Edited By hutbay on 1060364657
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