Kama Sutra, une histoire d'amour

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.

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!

When I rented KAMA SUTRA - A Tale Of Love, I thought my girlfriend would kill me for what the title implied. We were plesantly suprised to find a Love Story / Drama which, yes, has some very sexy scenes in it. Those looking for a movie version of the ancient text will be disapointed with the reasonable use of sexual content. There is an actual storyline here! This film is about true love, and the struggle for that love in the face of adversity. The love triangle, along with enough character development to explain the relationships between the five main characters, speaks of the human condition.

The story takes place "Once upon a time...". The costumes and sets are really well done. The cinematography is richly textured, with India as the exotic backdrop, and you are transported back into time... and into the lovers' experience.

This movie can take you through a full range of emotions, see it with your significant other, and expect it to effect you for the rest of the night.

Maya is a servant to Princess Tara in 16th century India. They've known each other since childhood and have grown up as friends (or so we're led to believe). As a young woman Tara watches enviously as Maya is given lessons in Kama Sutra (an ancient 4th century guide on how to make love) by a famed courtesan Rasa Devi. Tara is allowed to observe during these classes. Maya secretly envies the life of Tara, she hates being given Tara's hand me down clothes and constantly complains to her aunt about her life as a servant. The girls grown up and Tara is to be married to Raj Singh, a neighbouring king. Unfortunately for Tara, Maya learnt a bit too much during her Kama Sutra lessons and ends up deliberately seducing Tara's opium addicted husband on the eve of her wedding! This is brought about because Raj Singh looks at Maya with lust at his first meeting with his wife to be and she is so jealous she spits at Tara and tells her to leave the pre-wedding ceremony. Tara has a brother, Prince Vicky, a hunchback who is openly ridiculed by many, who has been in love with Maya since childhood. Vicky sees Maya seducing and bedding the king and is distressed and furious! On the wedding day as Tara is leaving the palace to go to her new palace Maya whispers to her "All my life I have lived with your used things but now something I have used is yours forever." Tara doesn't quite understand this and at the same time Vicky tells his mother that he wants to marry Maya and she must arrange it for him. Maya is approached with this proposal and refuses, and an enraged Vicky tells his mother of Maya's betrayal with his sister's husband on the eve of the wedding. The queen throws Maya out of the palace banishing her from the kingdom. Maya roams the land alone and lost. Tara rejects her husband's sexual advances as she has heard how painful sex is supposed to be the first time and he calls her "Maya". So the king leaves her bed and takes more and more opium and more and more mistresses and no one is happy. On her travels Maya meets Jai Kumar, the king's sculptor, who falls for her seductive charms and she becomes his most favoured model and lover. Maya falls in love with Jai and for the first time in her life she feels out of control. In the meantime the king is still obsessed with Maya, pretty much ignores his wife and continues to bed other women when he's not searching high and low around the kingdom for Maya.

What happens when the king catches up with Maya? What is the king's relationship with Jai Kumar? Do Tara or Maya ever achieve happiness in their lives? Just how vindictive can people be in the name of love and lust and revenge? I would rate this 7 out of 10. It's a very sensuous and beautifully filmed piece of work with excellent acting (whether or not you like the characters). For those who like romance, with historical drama and jealousy and spite all rolled into one, this is worth watching. Also if you like soft-core sex you might want to check it out too! To summarise the story I'd say it was predominantly about a poor girl trying to get revenge over a rich girl after years of being made to feel inferior even though they are brought up as best friends and by seducing the latter's husband on her wedding night she extracts the best revenge she possibly can, although ultimately this leads to tragedy.

This film was wonderfully told to me. The characters where great, the location was magical, and the whole film just left me with a great feeling. I love Indira Varma, she is so beautiful and such a talented actress. The role of Queen Tara portrayed by Sarita Choudhury deserves mention also. I would recommend to anyone with an open mind. Though I was very young when I first watched it, it is for the more mature audience.