Does sex sell everything everywhere? Perhaps, sex sells everything, everywhere and everytime. What is surprising is seeing who succumbs to its pressures and bowls over the brazenness.
Until now, sex was only inkled at - cut to flowers dancing in the breeze or birds necking or thundering and lightening of clouds. Blink and you 'll miss, Sex was almost absent from the mainstream Indian cinema. But now Indian cineastes are in for a shock; a string of films featuring previously taboo story lines, explicit dialogue and sex scenes are hitting the country’s silver screen every month.
Nudity is still not the cup of tea of our directors as to maintain the decorum of family films, but a lot of kissing, condoms and rampant female sexuality takes them a world away from the coy, fluttering eyelashes and mercuric adayein of yesteryear.
I don't think today's youngsters would prefer watching a kissing scene hedged by flowers. A good item number, certain blue dialogues or scenes that grab eyeballs work in favour of a film. Earlier it was either the siren's role to show some skin or cabaret artistes like Helen doing special numbers in sexy outfits.
No prizes for guessing that actors don't mind raising their hemlines or getting steamy onscreen. After Malaika Arora Khan, Katrina Kaif and Deepika Padukone's item songs, viewers are again ready to dabble into the sea of special numbers. One of them is Chikni Chameli of ‘Agneepath’, with frisky Katrina Kaif and people are looking forward to for titillation.
Why does the Censor Board have different norms for reality shows and films?
In my opinion, Giving A or U/A certificates won’t deviate the viewers now a day. Moreover, adult rated movies garner more interests in box-office. Film appreciation has changed. Not all the films are targeted at families. In fact, in many families, kids and parents go separately for the same film. Even the censors are becoming more liberal and lenient. Bollywood and Censor Board share a love-hate relationship. Sometimes Bollywood is not happy with Censor Board norms and sometimes Censor Board raises their eyebrows on Bollywood films. Now Karan Johar's upcoming film ‘Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu’ starring Kareena Kapoor-Imran Khan has come under the watchful eyes of Censor Board. Since KJo's film uses the word 'Sex' with the highly vigilant Censor board objecting to it has asked the filmmaker to remove the word from the trailer in order to procure a U-certificate.
On this imbroglio, KJo quipped, “Both censor and I have a same problem. Well, we don't have sex life.” Similarly, director Sudhir Mishra was miffed with the Censor Board when he was asked to drop the word 'saali' from the title of his movie ‘Yeh saali zindagi.’
Earlier Times
Le'ts dig into the history of Indian cinema as well. The coyness of Bollywood underwent considerable change in the 1970s when B.R. Ishaara made ‘Chetna’, a hard-hitting take on a hooker (Rehana Sultan) and her lover's (Anil Dhawan) vain efforts to rehabilitate her.
Another 'bold' spin-offs, including Ishaara's ‘Charitra’, which introduced Parveen Babi as a call girl, and 'Bazaar Band Karo', and also Feroz Chinoy's 'Do Raha' and Vijay Kapoor's ‘Call Girl’ remain trendsetters.
Mumtaz’s ‘Aaina’, her farewell performance before marriage, was awesome. A simple rustic Brahmin girl who becomes a sex worker in the city to support her large family is spurned by them when they get to know of her means of income. In Gulzar's ‘Mausam’, Sharmila Tagore gave an award-winning performance as the streetwalker Kajri who ends up trying to seduce her own father. In Lekh Tandon's ‘Doosri Dulhan’, Shabana was the white slave who rents out her womb to a childless couple. In the same fashion, Tabu- Sushmita Sen starrer ‘Filhaal’ was presented, keeping the backdrop of surrogate mother.
The most wanton and blithe brothel movie of the last century was Shyam Benegal's ‘Mandi’ where a star studded gallery of super-talented actresses - Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Neena Gupta, Ila Arun, Aneeta Kanwar and Soni Razdan; captured all the angles with recklessly breathtaking performances. Instead of being coy or raunchy, ‘Mandi’ preferred to remain satirical about the flesh trade.
Recent Times
Known for its bold attempts, Bhatt camp movie, ‘Jism’ broke the mould with a strong lead woman who unashamedly uses her body and her sexuality to get the men in her life to do as she wants. Model turned actress Bipasha Basu’s acting career was salvaged after her intimate scenes with her ex-boyfriend John Abraham in this movie. Konkona Sen Sharma-starrer ‘Mirch’ was endorsed as the India's first erotic film. Also, Mallika Sherawat was touted the most upfront celluloid sex symbol of Bollywood when her movie ‘Murder’ was released. Her smutty, erotic and tongue-wagging moves in all her movies left us salaciously stunned. Last year released ‘Love, Sex Aur Dhokha’ thrived on its bold theme, bawdy dialogues and titillating scenes.
Our serial kisser of Bollywood, Emraan Hashmi was seen in ‘Murder 2’, which revolved around the dark world of prostitutes, cross-dressers, pimps and stuffed reel of lewd scenes. A lot of steamy action is always guaranteed in his movies and we bet the same and the title also suggests for his recently released ‘The Dirty Picture’.
Upcoming saucy flick ‘The Dirty Picture’ is freezing everybody’s eyeballs due to its unforgettable rollicking music, the lusty kissing, raunchy dialogue and no-holds-barred story lines which caters a refreshing eye-opener for Indian viewers.
If Shah Rukh Khan and sex had sold earlier, the latter seems to have won the round for now! Bollywood filmmakers especially the GenX directors take on bold themes and use abusive language liberally in a bid to depict reality. In a competitive industry where numerous films release every week, item numbers and double-entendre dialogues perhaps help a film attain its USP and obviously this makes a film more saleable.
Some actresses who romanticized the image of the sex worker beyond all norms of the flesh trade.
Nargis in Adalat
Vayjayntimala Bali in Devdas
Suchitra Sen in Mamta
Meena Kumari in Pakeezah
Rekha in Umraon Jaan
Tabu in Chandani Bar
Namrata Shirodkar in Vaastav
Madhuri Dixit in Devdas
Madhuri Dixit in Devdas
Neha Dhupia in Julie
Priety Zinta in Chori Chori Chupke Chupke
Rani Mukerji in Laga Chunri Mein Daag
