Have libido,won’t unravel

In the last decade or so,Bollywood has taken baby steps in the direction of adulthood,which includes films that are willing to show skin. And,gulp,some degree of rustling bed-sheets,with a flash of bare back and leg and shoulder. But the thing of not letting go makes that scene more an obligatory artifice,rather than something that can be as revelatory of character,and soul.

A film PRO who is no more,used to tell me about the gory details of “bold”movies at a time when all “boldness” was confined to either B-grade cinema,or used to spice up,gingerly,the content of A-grade movies. “Aapke matlab ki nahin hai”,Om Prakashji would say,and continue regardless,with his “kapde kam aur kaam zyada” tales. Coming through invariably was the sentiment that he was not the sort of man to share these secrets with “girls from good families”,but couldn’t hide his glee,nevertheless,at being able to say out loud,salacious details of what went on behind the scenes. We would chuckle,very worldly wise,even though sometimes even my case-hardened ears did burn. But he never did manage to say the Ess Eee Ex word without muting his voice. Or mumbling. Bad word. Do not say. Do not hear.

Bollywood’s largely infantile gaze hasn’t changed radically. It hasn’t allowed the majority of its viewers to grow up,cinematically. And this makes it being at odds with what the world believes we are capable of. India is always,always,the Land of the Kamasutra. Man,those positions. How did that sage even think of them,the entwining of limbs at impossible angles,the ecstasy visible on the faces interred on the page,leading our litterateurs down the ages to make connections between “shareer” and “aatma”? Do what you want,but close those doors. And don’t just say it like it is.

If the books that people like you and me pick up couldn’t do it,not for us genteel folks,how could the movies? As a dominant position,and Hindi cinema is nothing if not the dominant unifying force in the land,it has always been this: here are the hero and heroine,who will engage in the dance of seduction discreetly,delicately,while we throw everything at them,as impediments,so that by the time we allow them to actually press flesh,they are joined in matrimony. “Shaadi kar lo,phir kuch bhi karo,hamaari balaa se”: this sentence still has enormous currency and weight. It belies all the “sex surveys”,which tout “frequency” and “habits”,that weekly magazines conduct every once in a while to boost condom sales. All this dirty talk,so much better to put away in journals. Why bring it out in the movies,those corrupting influencers of our young minds?

From films that are the equivalent of filmi Farex to flicks with real steam has taken Hindi cinema all these years,even if the latter constitute less than one percent of the A list in Bollywood (I am not taking into account the huge cottage industry which produces low-budget skin flicks which mostly play in B and C centres). But we are still very far from doing genuine risqué films. Because that presumes that the idea of the entire film is based on thoughts which would be strictly adult,not something that can be introduced and dispensed with,within minutes.

Item numbers have always functioned as those interludes that help audiences view the heaving and jiggling as a perfectly acceptable segment. Once the short-lived device is over,the hero is pulled back to legitimate pursuits,out of the clutches of the woman with no “shame” who anyway has nothing to do with the story,and delivered safely to the heroine who is mostly driven snow.

Risqué means having two adults think impure thoughts,and acting on them. That couple may not necessarily be legitimised by marriage. Or,shudder,be married to other people. The overriding principle of risqué comedies,and that’s what these movies mostly are,is that there are really no principles of the kind that bind the squares. Have libido,will unravel. Well done,risqué comedies can be fun,because they challenge the notions of hidebound conventions.

What if Bittoo,in last week’s Bittoo Boss,had been the naughty videographer the film promised he would be? That would have been a film,boss.

shubhra.gupta@expressindia.com