Excerpt from ‘Frames of Mind: Reflections on Indian Cinema’, ed. Aruna Vasudev. The essay I have taken this from is Hindi Commercial Cinema – Changing Narrative Strategies by Rashmi Doraiswamy – a part where she talks about sexually explicit songs in Indian cinema. It was written sometime in the early 90’s, like most of the other essays in this book.

Since songs are uncensored – only completed films are subjected to censorship – and aired prior to the release of the film they can be as sexy as they like. Controversy, in fact, sometimes helps the film run. ‘Choli Ke Peeche’ from Subhash Ghai’s Khalnayak is a trendsetter in this respect, getting involved in a court case against alleged obscenity. The irony is that Ghai’s own ouvre has songs with far greater sexual innuendo: refer to ‘Saat Saheliyan Khadi Khadi’ from Vidhaata or to ‘Imli Ka Boota’ in Saudagar picturised with the aging thespians Dilip Kumar and Raj Kumar. This number opens up new avenues in notions of male bonding in Hindi commercial cinema: Dilip Kumar’s actions and ‘mudras’ are more feminine of the two and at the end of the song the two actors are on the bed.

Now let me admit, I have done a fair share of liberal interpretation of song situations in Hindi films. Most songs are howlarious – and I don’t mean the much-maligned songs of my generation, but the ‘classics’ everyone adores. ( Apparently, I am not alone in this, as the recent spate of remix videos point out. Man, those remixers sure know how to select a song with the right amount of double entendre ) But ‘Imli Ka Boota’? Male bonding? You learn something new everyday. I shall doff a hat to Miss Rashmi Doraiswamy’s intuitive deductions, and I shall make a promise to myself to go check out more Subhash Ghai movies for hitherto undiscovered allusions, and quietly giggle to myself, in the stilly nights ere slumber’s chains have bound me.

I watched Demon City Shinjuku, another anime movie by Yoshiaki Kawajiri,( the same guy who made Ninja Scroll ) Very stylish beginning, but the “Ten Years Later” blurb after the prologue jars. There’s action galore, and cinematic moments aplenty, a couple of extremely well-designed villains ( one of the personal highlights of Ninja Scroll were the villains, each with a unique modus operandi ) who engage themselves in cool fights with our Lone Hero, with none of the accompanying baggage like character developement or subplots. Nice popcorn movie.

Site of the Weekend: Scifi.com