Life is RIGHT, even when it is not…. Review on Kama Sutra

STATUTORY WARNING: This review is about a Movie that is to be viewed by audience whose age is above 18 years. So the review has contents not suitable for reading by minors.

Kamasutra by Vatsyayana – the greatest love treatise written ever, is India’s gift to the World. Thousands of years and several translations later, the book is a minefield of information to adults who are interested in the art of Love making. What is surprising is the fact that despite all this the book in itself is as much a subject of enigma, as it is a taboo in its homeland India.

Kamasutra- A Tale of Love (the Movie)

Produced and directed by the award winning Mira Nair (Salaam Bombay, Monsoon Wedding) the movie is not a reproduction of the book; in fact it is story that unfolds in a relatively small princely state several hundred years after the book was written. The movie written by Helena Kriel and Mira Nair is replete with love, revenge, lust, greed, envy, selfishness and human frailties.

Maya (Indira Varma, Debut), who is a maid’s niece, grows up along with Princess Tara (Sarita Choudhari) as her friend. Though they are always playing together and attending the same dance classes, Maya is aware of the differential status and when she seems to think there isn’t any; Tara is quick to remind her. One question that keeps coming back to haunt her is why she has to always settle for clothes used by Tara, when Tara is eligible for new dresses. The two young girls grow up into beautiful maidens (Maya being the more beautiful one and better at dancing). Its time to get Tara married off and the suitor is none other than King Raj Singh (Naveen Andrews). The king however in his first meeting with the Princess is more impressed by her maid, the Princess realizing this, insults Maya in public. To get her revenge, Maya approaches the King on the night before the wedding and gives herself to him. After the wedding when Tara is ready to leave with the King, Maya whispers into Tara’s ears “all life I have lived with dresses that you have used, now something that I have used will be yours forever.”

Maya’s rendezvous with the King is made public by Tara’s brother (a hunchback who wanted to marry Maya but had to face refusal) and she is made an outcast. Wandering aimlessly until she meets the handsome sculptor Jay kumar (Ramon Tikaram), who leads her, to Rasa Devi (Rekha), the ageing courtesan, who now teaches Kamasutra to aspiring courtesans. Maya’s initial wariness about Jaya Kumar slowly transforms into respect and full blown love, the sculptor who is free-soul refuses to acknowledge his love for Maya fearing loss of independence. Angered by this Maya decides to get even with him, by becoming a courtesan and ends up in the Palace of the King Raj Singh.

From here the movie takes us through the story of these two ladies who after their initial hatred for each other somewhere down the lane, realize that neither is happy. It is about how Tara finally gets to give the King a piece of her mind ( “I do not love you enough to hate you…”). It is the story of the sculptor who realizes that he would have rather succumbed to Maya’s love rather than his need for independence, but is helpless as Maya now is the King’s most preferred courtesan. He is condemned to death by the King (who realizes that though Maya’s body is with him, her soul is with Jay). It is also the story of a King who spent more time in his harems with his courtesans than with his ministers, which eventually leads to the downfall of his kingdom….who ends up having no one but his reluctant wife by his side when the end approaches.

Positives

This is not a path breaking movie by any standards. But it is a movie with some strengths; the most impressive amongst them being its photography (by Declan Quinn) and the Music (composed by Mychael Danna featuring leading Indian musicians like Shubha Mudgal, L.Subramaniam, Ustaad Vilayat H. Khan). These two components elevate the movie to something of a “poetry on screen” aided by some slick editing (by Christina Boden). Another of its strengths is a plot that is strengthened by very human characters and their fallibilities.

Negatives:

On the negatives, most actors and actresses look more like models, concentrating more on their gait than emoting. Notable exception is Rekha, who is stunningly beautiful, much more than the two young leading ladies and does justice to her role as well. Pearl Padamsee and Harish Patel appear briefly in character roles and do their bit with élan. The movie needlessly features a few clichéd images like the ones of temple walls that are full of erotic postures. A movie set in northen India, showcases Mohini Attam (from Kerala) in a scene. The movie is also completely devoid of humor which in my opinion is a great negative.

The reason why the movie is restricted to the adult audience of course is not just for the very mature subject the movie talks about but also a few explicit love making scenes, which I must hasten to add, has been visualized very artistically but performed in a rather un-attached manner. This could also be the main drawback of the movie as these love making scenes are ones that got all the attention in the media and often they are what one tends to remember the most when thinking about the movie in retrospect. Probably Mira Nair could have played down those scenes (I don’t see how that would have affected the flow of the movie or its plot) and stressed more on the emotional part of it. But hey! I am not complaining. By stressing on the scenes that show a lot of skin she probably ensured necessary publicity for her movie but in the bargain ended up with a movie that is neither an erotica in its true sense or an emotional drama. Is it a perfect balance between the two… well Not in my opinion!

What I feel

Woman you make the world move, in native Tamil there is a saying which means something like Woman you are the creator and you can be the destroyer. Probably the movie tried to suggest this in its own way. The women in the movie come through as strong personalities who have the courage and the conviction to follow their heart, though they lived in an India whose society was strongly biased towards men. Where women knew that though men ruled the World, it is they who ruled the men!!! It also brings to light an era in Indian history which regarded sex as an art not as a taboo.

The movie is definitely worth a watch for members who are over 18 and as for the others, if you have been reading this in spite of the Statutory Warning, then please wait till you are of an eligible age at least, when it comes to watching this movie…. Believe me you will not be missing much by doing that...