1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Kama Sutra Nowadays, October 30, 2011
This review is from: Love In India (DVD)
The filmmaker Q tries to explore sexuality in India, contrasting the Kama Sutra of the past with the sexual conservatism of today. It's an interesting enough exploration. So much of the interviews are in Hindlish, like in many Bollywood films. I'm not sure how Indian languages are going to survive or stay pure if sooooo much English gets infused into it. I think the same thing when watching Tagalog filmic productions.
Q's camera work is great. This is not just some guy recording his surroundings on cheap equipment. Still, this did seem a bit hodgepodge, or catch-as-catch-can. The lack of structure may frustrate some viewers. For example, he records a married couple in a rural, tribal area. He shows them for two or three minutes, but they never give an interview for the audience to learn something. I think "Monsoon" might have had a scene where a female translator was having problems translating the sounds in a blue movie. I thought of this when watching the documentary.
There's a good amount of singing in this and I just loved it. They never mentioned the African-American concept of soul, but I felt the singers were really putting 110% into it. Then again, there was an old poet here and his words, actions, and images seemed very unerotic or unappealing to me.)
The Kama Sutra is not the only shocking matter here. This work presents a Krishna and Radha as being a Romeo and Juliet of India. However, they were both married to other people. There's even a story told that has Oedipal/Electra parellels but is not condemning of the practice.
This documentary is full of its maker, named Q, and his recordings of his girlfriend. Q kinda looks like a brown Clive Davis. Q never shows his whole chest, but you can tell it's nice and hairy in that Alec Baldwin, Patrick Warburton type of way. At one point, he and his lady friend watch a tape of themselves getting busy. He shows his butt from the side, but I would have preferred to see his bottom portions directly.
This work is heterocentric, however, it doesn't try to disrespect non-heteros. At one point, he shows women who say Bollywood actresses turn them on. Given the prejudiced laws that Britain forced down the throats of the subcontinent, it may not have been safe or allowed to explore same-sex matters with more dedication. For those interested, I greatly encourage them to see Pratibha Parmar's wonderful documentary "Khush."
You may want to see this alongside the film "Kama Sutra" from more than a decade ago.
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