India being the land of Kama sutra, is yet to come to terms in bringing the bedroom to the living room of an eager audience. The depiction of sexual intimacy on the silver screen has remained a clandestine activity shrouded in the cover of a private darkness for the movie going audience.  

The Indian censor board does not allow for movie scenes depicting frontal nudity or lip locks. Such intimate scenes get the censor board’s axe. Suppression of such public display of intimacy in the past, has given rise to an unusual exposition of bestiality – rape. 

The movies of old, titillated the audience with rape scenes. In other words, the only way a director could slip in intimacy was through violation of human dignity. 

Over time, the censor boards became liberal and have allowed for a little more public display of intimacy. I believe the number of silver screen rapes have seen a steady decline. rape being the worst form of intimacy depiction, there are a few other minor forms

What should be seen in a negative light are the following. 

1,  the hero harasses his love interest till she succumbs to his romantic songs and charms. She is more often than not, depicted as a push-over

2.  Strong scripts for women are rarely written. But this is a universal problem. Hollywood suffers as much as Bollywood. Not many women in the entertainment industry.  Not many women scriptwriters. 

3.  There is a common belief that non-conformist and liberal girls may not be received well in B-category towns. This is slowly changing as there is a huge migrant population from the villages, aspiring to a big city life.

4.  Raunchy dance numbers called “item numbers” are the rage of Bollywood movies.  Heroines achieve ethereal status, by gyrating to the heavy beats of dance numbers that are themselves loaded with suggestive sexual innuendos.  Thrusting the pelvis in an artful or aesthetic dance form is the basic structure of an “item number”.  While the heroine is as scantily clad as possible, the hero himself is depicted as a well groomed gentleman. Thus the women are objectified as mere vamps.  The incessant chatter about the “Top 10″, list the best of such item numbers in the public media. The constant playing of these catchy dance numbers have made such “item numbers” acceptable as the new normal in Indian cinema.

5.  As the censor board limits depiction of intimacy beyond a point, the song lyrics have advanced to the other extreme of sexual expression.  Many lyrics are penned with double entendre in mind.  Of late, the songs have become even more direct and troublesome in their depiction of women.  A recent flare-up occurred when the lyrics of a Punjabi rapper, Yo! Yo! Honey Singh’s lyrics, crossed over into a non-vanilla treatment of women.  References here:  http://tinyurl.com/axlfg7e and http://tinyurl.com/aak5fov

6.  In an Indian society where the choice of movie to be watched is usually determined by the male, does one depicting a liberated woman stand to succeed at the box-office?  The answer is an expected and emphatic “No!”.  Such films if any, are received well by an accepting audience in the big cities and metropolis theaters, but fail to woo the audiences of the B-Category towns or the C-Category villages of India.

7.  In a recent Aamir Khan production called “Talaash”, the scriptwriter was a woman – Reem Kagti.  She scripted a wonderful role for the protagonist’s wife.  Though not truly liberated, she goes through a character change, much before the protagonist goes through a self-revelation.  Such films with strong female characters are few and far in between.  Read more here:  http://tinyurl.com/bh4wfc2

8.  Aamir Khan is an actor with an activist’s agenda and succeeds in his comercial ventures.  His activist on the small-screen was well received.  He had a very popular theme once regarding the girl child and the problem of female infanticide in India:  http://tinyurl.com/cwcf5wq  With the recent national debate over misogyny and patriarchy, there are bound to be new Bollywood films that will tacke the problem on mainstream comercial movies.

But hope comes in strange packages!  When the Bollywood stars came out to protest the unsafe environment for women during the recent Delhi gang-rape outcry, many criticized their vile objectification of women on-screen.  There is hope that moving forward, such a public debate makes it’s mark on-screen.