I just put up a post about kissing onscreen, and a comment from Alisa/BollywoodNewbie got me thinking about how maybe the reason kisses are so shocking is because they are the one act everyone understands. While all the other stuff that is just implied goes right over people’s heads. Not “against the grain” things, but things that have no logical explanation beyond sex, and imply sex which is not procreational and married and in the missionary position.
I’ll start with two stories from college. I was friends with a bunch of “nice” desi girls. So, raised in America, but school was most important, never went to parties or drank or did anything but study, didn’t even stay on campus on the weekends. Watching Indian films was their big wild experience. I was friends with them because I myself had no interest in drinking or going to parties and I loved learning things in classes, and I really loved movies. But I eventually started to realize that there was a difference between knowing of other things and choosing not to experience them, versus not even being aware they existed.
For instance, we were having a conversation at the dining table about movies and songs and stuff and I mentioned that moment of oral sex in “Shikdum”. And they all looked totally blank. I reminded them, that moment when Abhishek’s head drops below the frame? And Rimi Sen gets all breath and ecstatic? And the camera spins around? Nope, no awareness. They just accepted that as a weird moment in a song and didn’t interrogate at all what it might be meant to imply.
Same conversation, we were talking about Hum-Tum, and I mentioned the big plot point of Rani and Saif having sex. Again, no awareness. They thought they kissed, then went to sleep and woke up.
Another famous example is this scene from Silsila, Shashi and Amitabh showering together and joking about “dropping the soap” like when they were in boarding school.
Another reference to oral sex, “Pardesia” from Mr. Natwarlal, one minute in, Rekha slides down his body and his face suddenly changes, cut to a very phallic tree full of girls.
Chaalbaaz, happy fun family friendly movie, in which Sridevi and Sunny Deol DEFINITELY have sex while her aunt watches. And I’m not saying that is wrong, or this isn’t a fun family friendly song, but it is possible that if I were to say to a desi person “Chaalbaaz! That’s the movie where Sridevi and Sunny have sex, right?” The response would be “I don’t know what you are talking about”.
Another one, Vivah! I’m honestly not sure what is supposed to be happening in this song. They are an engaged couple, they made elaborate plans to spend the night together, the lyrics are “I have the right”, and yet they seem to just be looking at each other in the moonlight? It’s weird, is all I am saying. I would find it less weird if it was implied they did have sex, with the big deal they are making about just looking at each other.
And here’s Kajol masturbating and dreaming of Ajay Devgan. Right? She’s alone in the bathroom in the opening, and has filled the house with water at the end, while she looks up orgasmically? How else are we supposed to interpret this? She’s “dreaming of him”?
Not even a song, very strange comedy sequence from Singh is Bling with Amy Jackson sitting on Akshay Kumar’s lap while he has an erection during a car chase. Sounds weird written out like that, right? It is weird! And yet the audience just kind of brushes past it.
Ewww, now I feel all icky and dirty! For a nice cleansing “procreational sex in the missionary position between a married couple who love each other” moment that we can all agree happened and interpret the same way, let’s look at the wedding song from Gadar. So sweet!
What do you think? Am I interpreting these songs and scenes as they are meant to be interpreted, or is there another logical way to see them?
Also, is the post title very clear as to what this is about? Or should I put in another “SEX! SEX IS HERE!” label?
dontcallitbollywood 
OMG!! like your college friends, I was completely oblivious to these sexual references…I just brushed past them completely…you have destroyed my innocence!
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Oh good, you just proved my thesis that it is possible to watch these things and not think about them!
On Thu, May 23, 2019 at 1:50 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I realized I’m like your desi friends, I just don’t think much and don’t interrogate. Abhishek is out of the frame and Rimi looks happy? Ok, maybe he is kissing her stomach or maybe something else.
Sure when in the next scene, the couple is naked in bed like in Hum Tum, it’s obvious they had sex, but otherwise I assume it was only kissing. Oh, like in Joseph (spoilers), in Karineela Kannulla song. Joseph was with his girlfriend in the woods, they were spending time together, kissing etc, but I was sure there wasn’t sex. Until the scene when he finds her body and feels sick. I was like: OMG they did it!
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What’s really weird is when the movie makes explicit that all they do is kiss, but everyone reacts like they had sex. Like in Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon or Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, or even Vivah.
On Thu, May 23, 2019 at 2:19 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Hahaha I have a filthy mind and I totally interpreted those scenes the way you did! I can’t come up with specific examples now but I know I’ve seen phallic symbol shots and exploding champagne bottles and overflowing fountains and all kinds of things like that in Bollywood films. I need to start keeping a running list.
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Oh, yaaaay! It’s not just me with the dirty mind!
Here, I’ll make it simple, the two most visual metaphor-y songs EVER:
The song “Tell me friend, then what happens?” You can fill in the rest “we get married, then what happens? We have our first night, then what happens?
And the song titled “Season of Love/Passion”. Because they are friends, see? Passionate passionate friends. Check out the section starting at 2:50 in particular
On Thu, May 23, 2019 at 4:00 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Last week when the trailer of Malaal was out, people were saying that Meezaan Jaffrey looks like Arjun and Ranveer son, made durning the shooting of Gunday.
Btw I must watch this movie asap
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Gunday or Malaal? The guys in Gunday might be a little too sculpted and waxed for you.
On Thu, May 23, 2019 at 4:23 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Both. Malaaal because Mezaan , and Gunday because even if Arjun is waxed, watching him dancing and being sexy is like eating chocolate, but better because without calories.
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I haven’t seen the full movie of most of your examples so I’ll only speak about the films I know. Hum Tum: the point is that they DO have sex and it is one of those, one thinks its a mistake the other doesn’t and hurt ensues. (like your unfavorite Band Baja Barat, a movie I actually like) Its important that we know that it happened. In Vivah, it is the opposite. That night they get engaged. The whole point is “I have the right” to be alone with you all night, to touch you, to take care of you..all of that is a constant theme in the film. In the end *spoiler alert* after she has been burned and it is their wedding night and it is time for the dressings on her burns to be tended to instead of chastely leaving the room as he has done, he says, “I have the right” meaning “I have the right to take care of you in good and bad.” That first night shows the innocence of both of them.
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Exactly with Hum Tum! That’s why I still remember that conversation from college, it was so surprising that they could watch and enjoy the movie and not understand that very very important plot point. I guess it could kind of work with them just kissing, if kissing was important to them. But it makes a heck of a lot more sense with them having sex!
On Thu, May 23, 2019 at 5:51 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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That is NOT to say that the other scenes aren’t almost inside jokes on the part of the sophisticated director and the potentially innocent audience.
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Here’s a couple subtle sex-reference shots from Hollywood.
North by Northwest train-in-tunnel
From here to eternity beach scene (which was stolen by Hum Tum):
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I love those scenes! But when you start looking for them, there are similar scenes all over Bollywood films too.
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There’s also that song in Devdas – Kare Krishna raas Radha ke sang. Which I never totally understood what they were getting at. When I watched the movie, I definitely didn’t think anywthing was but now maybe….. But yeah I was just like your friends!
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There are so many song lyrics that are, like, barely hidden sex metaphors. All those pots Krishna keeps breaking….
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I still don’t get it. What exactly is happening in that song that I can’t see.Please elaborate,genuine qn.
On a different note,this whole post is like someone woke me up from a decade long sleep. I’m still processing this all.
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I think I would feel the same way if I went back to the old Cary Grant and Fred Astaire movies I watched as a kid and realized “oh, that was a joke about sex!”
On Sat, May 25, 2019 at 3:37 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I watched the Shikdum video in YouTube and all the comments there of how many guys transitioned from boys to men becos of this song is blowing my mind. This used to play on TV all the time and who would have thought. Now I’m pissed why there were no such songs for girls. I’m really thankful to Mani Ratnam for Madhavan and the bedroom romance in Roja, Bombay.
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I have this really stupid notion that Indians, in and out of their movies, do it a lot but do it straight; no kinky, non-procreational stuff. I mean, all those babies!
Yeah; I know. Stupid.
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I think by and large they do it but only within marriage. I say “by and large” including the villages and stuff, not just the urban elites that the films show.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean no kinky or non-procreational! Marriages can be fun! go back over to the Shahrukh post and watch Dheere Jalna and Tauba again.
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