Body of work

Hum gay hain. Yeh mera boyfriend hai. As Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham do the tango together, it's not just Kantaben's tray (yes, the very same from Kal Ho Naa Ho) that is rattling. So are several old notions about what is acceptable in a mainstream Bollywood film. Gay men, to begin with. Yes, we've always known that Bollywood abounds with unopened closets (which don't always have the latest Manolo Blahniks and Jimmy Choos). But now its filmmakers seem determined to at least peep out of the doors. Whether it is the Philadelphia-like story of My Brother...Nikhil or the newly married Karan Kapoor lusting after the engaged NRI Vikram Chatwal in Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd, same-sex sex is taking a deep breath and coming up for air.So is sex in general. And not just the black satin sheet variety to be found in Vishesh Films, usually featuring Emraan Hashmi and the latest female B-townie. We mean the kind of fantasy sex that takes place despite romance-deadening EMIs and soul-killing jobs. .preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}The kind of wife swapping that was first seen in Rajat Kapoor's Mixed Doubles, a film that succeeded in making sleazy sex seem cerebral. Sometimes it happens amidst Louis Vuitton accessories and Christian Dior gowns as in Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna and at other times, between men and women who worry about keeping up with credit card payments. That's the kind of couple Irrfan Khan and Soha Ali Khan play in Anil Senior's Dil Kabaddi.Dostana: Hot pink convertible for Abhishek Bachchan and hotter lime green trunks for bathing beauty John AbrahamPerhaps the greater openness comes from several of these films being adaptations of western movies.Dil Kabaddi is based on Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives, whereas Arjun Chandramohan Bali has adaptedRu-Ba-RufromIf Only."Our movie begins where others end," says Bali, whose heroine leaves the hero after two years of living together.Every filmmaker has a red light flashing in his brain that warns him against offending the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). Nudity is usually a no-no. Few filmmakers want to risk an adult certificate and cut off a substantial potential audience. But even that barrier is about to be broken in Ketan Mehta's Rang Rasiya, which went to the revising committee of the board and will now have fewer seconds of frontal nudity. Says Vinayak Azad of the CBFC: "Each film has to be viewed differently. There are no guidelines on nudity as such."At a deeper level there is also an attempt to engage the audience in a debate on sexual politics, and indeed on artistic freedom. At a time of greater openness about the mechanics of sex (count the number of kisses in Bachna Ae Haseeno) there is also a certain wariness about what is permissible in art. The truth, as the cases against M.F. Husain have shown, is that not much has changed in terms of defining the limits of creative liberty even 100 years on. Fashion: Sex, drugs and overdose. Its fashion and its speaka-boo specialist Madhur Bhandarkar, so can seamy sex be far behind?Which is why a YouTube video of Shah Rukh Khan and Deepa Sahi in a steamy love-making scene in the 15-year-oldMaya Memsaab, deleted from the theatrical version, can still make news. "It shows how repressed we still are, " says Mehta.Indeed. Skirts may have become shorter and kisses have more tongue, but sex is still the elephant in the living room that everyone tries to politely ignore. Which explains why Madhur Bhandarkar (who had no qualms in airing all manner of sexual activities in Page 3) immediately agreed to snip the number of times the love-making scene was shown in the television promo of his forthcoming Fashion. Which is also why the director of Dostana, Tarun Mansukhani, is at pains to point out that being gay in his film is neither a joke nor a political statement.Yet it's easier to suggest that married men are attracted to other men's wives in Karan Johar's Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna. Or that a pensioner can fantasise about his daughter's best friend in Ram Gopal Varma's Nishabd. Society is altering the way it deals with relationships, so will Bollywood. Which is why a remark about a character dying a "40-year-old virgin" in Rock On!! will only elicit guffaws now. To think that a mere decade ago, when Preity Zinta asked Shah Rukh Khan "are you a virgin" in Mani Ratnam's Dil Se, he nearly choked on his coffee.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Sep 12, 2008--- ENDS ---

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Body of work

Being gay, living together without marriage, adultery, even underage sex. Welcome to Bollywood, and its slowly growing sense of sexual adventure. The greater openness, perhaps comes from several of today's films being adaptations of western movies.

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