Perfumed Garden: Tales of the Kama Sutra

Do not, under any conditions, rent this reeking pile of dog-doo that purports to be a movie.

My lady and I thought this disk might make for a steamy evening's diversion. After all, the box describes the movie as being all about passion, love, etc. Well, it was a big disappointment. The film can be summed up as having the rich plot of a soft-core porn film, without any of the sex. That's right. It is a scam. There are very few love scenes. Most of them are brief, and involve the main characters getting into an argument. The plot is dull, and the dialog is totally awful. The acting is about on par for a porn film, too.

The only redeeming feature of this film is the fake parrot that appears in one of the dream sequences. A stuffed parrot is lying on its belly in a cage during two scenes. The thing is so fake, we both burst into laughter when the sound track included a parrot squawking. It might have been a dead parrot, but I think it was a doll.

OK, obviously the person who posted before me did not watch the entire movie. It is a very good movie about love that survives through the ages. A man and woman are having relationship troubles because he is impotent with her. They decide to travel to India for him to study and preserve a temple as part of his job.

Along the way, the couple meets a very strange woman that tells a heart-breaking story of a couple who could not be. The story is of a monk who visits a castle to paint pictures of the king and queen performing Kama Sutra (which back then was a way of life). He falls in love with one of their helpers and betrays his vow of celibacy. The couple dies alone and apart.

After this story is told, the strange woman tells Micheal that he is the reincarnation of the monk and she is of the helper. (He doesn't think she's crazy *rolling eyes*) She tells him that she has loved him for hundreds of years. Micheal admits to the woman that he is in love with another woman. The woman understands and tells him that she will love him for ages until they are able to be together.

In the end, the man is no longer impotent and the viewer is heart-broken by the woman's story.

That is what this movie is about and I would recommend it to anyone!

This was like a light dramatized classical theming of spiritual topics with a sensual overtone. I thought it was great on a number of levels including the spiritual, the understanding of east meets west, artistic and architectural notions, and not only the sensual, the sensual in terms of history and relationship values.

This movie on video interested me because it's shot in India, particularly Khajuraho and Jaipur, cities I will visit myself. It's a story about an American couple who have some Indian friends. The man is impotent but that doesn't bother his girlfriend even so very much. He goes to India to work at the famous erotic sculptures of Khajuraho.She goes with him.They meet a mysterious Indian lady (a role by a well-known Indian actress who played in "Little Buddha") who makes them acquainted with the Kama Sutra. This same actress is the main figure in a Kama Sutra story that is set 1000 years earlier. There she is a courtisane at the King's court. What this story of sex and broken vows has to do with the Kama Sutra does not become clear. There are some nude scenes, a total of 10 minutes of nudity (naked breasts of 4 women and only a few seconds full frontal nudity) but filmed in a highly esthetic way, that does not become vulgar. Nevertheless it's a disappointing film.It doesn't even show much of India or these temples in Khajuraho. It's not awfully boring but leaves you with a lot of questions.

Despite the exotic locale and the presence of good Indian talent, this is basically a typical American B-movie that provides an excuse for some nudity and sexual situations. Fans of the genre will recognize the principals as familiar faces from other such films. Not that that's a bad thing. With the popularity in recent years of Indian-themed films as "Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love" and "Fire", it's too be expected that this theme would be used for Playboy channel-style fare, with the potential to infuse the tired genre with some fresh energy. But we're going to have to continue to wait for someone to do it adequately. "Perfumed Garden" has great promise, including the suggestion that something might develop between the two female principals (one of whom is a beautiful Indian actress), but it goes nowhere. Director Mundra delivered the goods years ago with "The Other Woman", but for some reason drops the ball here.