Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love

About the film

Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love is a 1996 historical erotic romance film co-written, co-produced, and directed by Mira Nair. The first portion of the film is based on "Utran" ("Hand Me Downs"), a short story in Urdu by the Indian writer Wajida Tabassum. The film takes its title from the ancient Hindu text, the Kama Sutra but has no relationship with the text. It stars Naveen Andrews, Sarita Choudhury, Ramon Tikaram, Rekha and Indira Varma. The English-language film was produced by Indian, British, German and Japanese studios.

Declan Quinn won the 1998 Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography for his work in the film. Kama Sutra was nominated for the Golden Seashell award at the 1996 San Sebastián International Film Festival and was screened at the Cannes Film Festival. The film generated controversy at the time of its release and was banned in India due to its erotic theme and sexual content.

Plot

In 16th-century India, Tara is a princess while Maya is her beautiful servant. They are best friends, but there is an undercurrent of jealousy and resentment, symbolised by the fact that Maya is given Tara's hand-me-down clothes and never anything new to wear. As the girls approach marriageable age, Tara resents that Maya is a better classical dancer than she is and that her parents and hunchback brother, Prince Bikram (a.k.a "Biki") show affection for her servant.

Tara is prepared to marry Prince Raj Singh, but when the prince comes to view his future wife, he is instantly infatuated with Maya instead. Noticing this, Tara spits in Maya's face and sends her from the wedding in tears. Maya takes revenge by seeking out Raj and having sex with him, before he has completed the marriage rites with Tara; Biki, hiding, watches the two of them.

As Tara is leaving home as a newlywed, Maya tells her that just as Maya wore the princess's used clothes all her life, Tara will now have something Maya has used. During her wedding night, Tara is hesitant to consummate their relationship. An angry Raj rapes his horrified bride, even calling her Maya, setting a tone of violence and humiliation for the marriage. Despite this, Tara still yearns for a loving relationship with her indifferent husband.

Production

Mira Nair had approached A. R. Rahman to compose the score and soundtrack for the film, but he turned down the opportunity citing he was uncomfortable with the film's title. He noted that he did not want international audiences to brand him as "the composer of Kama Sutra fame."

Indira Varma said she did not realize when she read the script there would be explicit scenes in the film. "It wasn't called Kama Sutra when we were filming it," she said. "It was untitled. And then it says in the script, they make love. When you're young and naive and stupid you don't process the idea that it will take one day with your kit off to shoot that sentence".

Critical reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film received 40% positive reviews from 20 professional critics. The website's critical consensus reads: "Kama Sutra refreshingly approaches sensuality from a female perspective, but audiences will be turned off by this romance's silly plotting."

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it two out of four, and wrote: "The film is lush and voluptuous to regard, but I expected more from Mira Nair, and I was disappointed. She is better than this work."

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