Perfumed Garden: Tales of the Kama Sutra

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.

My girlfriend and I got the video in hopes of seeing an arousing movie. We were disappointed. The movie was slow, the storyline was okay, but wouldn't make sense if you didn't already know something about Karma and the Kama Sutra to begin with. The whole story could have taken up 30 minutes of film. If it did, it would have been better.

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.

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.