Okay, so liplocks have become commonplace. They’re no longer seasonal. For evidence, check out Ranveer Singh canoodling with Deepika Padukone in 'Ram-Leela'. Actors — male or female — don’t shy away from the lipgiri, unless it’s a Shah Rukh Khan, who made just a singular exception for lip lingo with Katrina in 'Jab Tak Hai Jaan'.
Kissing is in the air for sure. Yet, censorship can still be pretty whimsical. I know of a member of the examining committee who had issues with a heroine’s cleavage. “It’s too titillating,” she huffed. After an intense discussion with the filmmaker, the objectionable cleavage was finally cleared. The cleavage shot had barely lasted for five seconds.
Wary of the ongoing quixotic censorship, most filmmakers picturise lengthy kissing scenes. So if the censors insist on a “toning down”, there’s still sufficient footage intact, to achieve the desired effect. Huh, “desired effect”, did I say? Sounds Victorian but come to think of it, we’re still in a state of infancy when it comes to depiction of sex in the movies. For years, the argument was that er…such brazenness is not in our culture, while the opposition went on about the Khajuraho sculpture, the Kama Sutra, not to forget the fact that in the silent era, the umpteen number of kisses in Throw of Dice and Karma didn’t raise anyone’s hackles.
However, with the onset of the 1950s, conservatism ruled in the post-independence Mumbai-produced films. Consequently, strange subterfuges were used to indicate sexuality, the most famous one being a bicycle toppling over the other in Yash Chopra’s 'Dhool ka Phool' (1959), in which Rajendra Kumar and Mala Sinha succumbed to their basic instincts. More imaginative images followed: Two bees pollinating on a flower, a dangling lantern crashing and parrots rubbing their beaks furiously.
And if a night of passion was a must, the penitent heroine would have to resort to the cliché, “Yeh humne kya kiya? Paap hai paap! (What on earth did we do? This is sinful, very sinful!)” With the arrival of colour films, clothed sexuality — rain dances and showers under the waterfall — excited wolf whistles from the frontbenchers.
As the 1970s and ‘80s advanced, and the audience tired of faux sexuality, kisses were cleared. Occasionally. Examples: Shashi Kapoor-Zeenat Aman in 'Satyam Shivam Sundaram', Rishi Kapoor-Dimple Kapadia in 'Saagar' and Aamir Khan-Karisma Kapoor in 'Raja Hindustani'. Quite hilariously, when the censors were criticised for permitting a blink-and-you’ll-miss nude shot of Dimple Kapadia, the Censor Board’s chairman stated that he had gone round the corner, when Dimple flashed before diving into the sea!
All that sounds so cute and coy in retrospect actually. Over time, Emraan Hashmi has become the sultan of smooches, Mallika Sherawat claims to have struck some record with 30-plus kisses in 'Khwaishen'. And every heroine — be it Aishwarya Rai, Katrina Kaif, Priyanka Chopra, Anushka Sharma or Rani Mukherjee — has had no qualms about the pucker-pucker-smack-smack business. No image damage done. Earlier, though, Madhuri Dixit had always regretted her smooch encounter with Vinod Khanna in 'Dayavan'. Tsk.
Today, Kareena Kapoor Khan claims that she won’t turn down K-scenes if they’re relevant to the plot. Whatever that means. And during the pre-release publicity campaign for Ram-Leela, Ranveer Singh bragged that one of his kisses with Deepika was the lengthiest ever. Oh oh, the censors snipped that kiss which could have made it to the Guinness Book of Records.
Snipped in the bud or not, kissing is here big-time. Mercy be! The coy era is over.
