Kamasutra

i admire mira nair's films. she clearly loves India and its culture, a fact evident in all of her films i've had the pleasure of seeing. but her real art is showing her passion through so many prisms. vanity fair showed us India from the British home perspective which we usually see from western directors, while salaam bombay showed us modern urban India at its most destitute and triumphant. monsoon wedding introduces to the rapidly expanding Indian middle class, providing us with a far more intimate appreciation of her subjects than we might get calling for tech support for our computers or trying to understand a credit card bill.

kama sutra shows us India through yet another prism. first a prism of history, which she lushly recreates, and then through a prism of sexuality, which she (rightly) brandishes as legacy of a great and ancient culture. perhaps she suggests that the British morality imposed by the empire attempted, with some success, to obscure a vibrant and enthusiastic sexuality. well, if British sex is anything like British food, and Indian sex is like Indian food, she might have a point. curiously, i've been told that if you want to eat good English food in London, go curry.

i don't think that nair's ultimately interested in instructing us on sexual physics, or in telling us an epic melodrama. but through her four characters, she reveals love and sex as they are manifest continuously through the human story. a king imposes himself on his queen (patriarchy and rape), a king demands his coutesan (adultery and carnality), unrequited love (every character, each with a twist), jealousy, shame, sex as love, sex as passion, sex as brutality, and so on. the shades of sex that she reveals through her characters' relations are familiar, and she artfully sketches the nuances in three dimensions, where you rarely see more than one or two in Hollywood tripe. yet, like a good tikka masala, the chicken is familiar, but the colors and the flavor are distinctly and marvelously Indian.

I must say I really enjoyed this film. I saw it late at night, when they usually only show crap on TV, and I was just blown away. I loved the historical setting, the costumes, the sets, the interaction of the characters, the dancing and the love story. I also can't help thinking that Indira Varma is probably the most beautiful woman alive. I found this film stunning, enjoyable and moving, and I highly recommend it to audiences who don't mind a little sensual nudity in their films.

A film which features stunning use of photography, rich colours and excellent locations. The film relies on the beauty of the locations rather than the characters which I found to be under-written.

The film's erotic scenes are nicely done, they are not steamy, but very enjoyable.

The screenplay is a major disappointment, the characters are underwritten, and certain sequences are thinly executed, at times, there is no depth to scenes.

I don't know how accurate 16th century is represented in this picture, but I have my suspicions!

The direction is nice, but really required a screenplay to make the film work.

The performances are good, but I didn't think they were great.

Overall, a disappointing screenplay, which never gives depth to the characters. A bit pretentious!

I've watched this film over and over again and it just gets better. It's actually based on a book called "Hand-Me-Downs" which you'll understand after you've watched it. As the last person who commented on this stated it's not the "Kama Sutra" you're thinking of. There IS sex, there IS a bit of violence, but don't watch this with the hopes of seeing your average vulgar action and sex film. The women in the film are instructed and shown how to the master the art of Kama Sutra, mind you the ART not the positions. Anyway, the film setting is gorgeous and the acting is superb. You'll recognize Sarita Choudhury as Tara if you've already watched Mississippi Massala. Indira Varma does an excellent job in expressing her revenge, regret, and mystery in Tara's character. Everyone and I mean EVERYONE did an excellent job in this film.

I bought this movie after seeing most of it on Bravo several different times. I really love this movie. It has beautiful imagery and a good plot. I was captivated by the lovely erotic scenes. Although there is a love story in it, the film isn't entirely an happily ever after affair. However, the ending retains the feeling of hope and the fact that love (though not necessarily the lover) survives all things.

A sad, yet hopeful movie. I highly recommend it.