Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996)

Maya is a servant to Princess Tara in 16th century India. They've known each other since childhood and have grown up as friends (or so we're led to believe). As a young woman Tara watches enviously as Maya is given lessons in Kama Sutra (an ancient 4th century guide on how to make love) by a famed courtesan Rasa Devi. Tara is allowed to observe during these classes. Maya secretly envies the life of Tara, she hates being given Tara's hand me down clothes and constantly complains to her aunt about her life as a servant. The girls grown up and Tara is to be married to Raj Singh, a neighbouring king. Unfortunately for Tara, Maya learnt a bit too much during her Kama Sutra lessons and ends up deliberately seducing Tara's opium addicted husband on the eve of her wedding! This is brought about because Raj Singh looks at Maya with lust at his first meeting with his wife to be and she is so jealous she spits at Tara and tells her to leave the pre-wedding ceremony. Tara has a brother, Prince Vicky, a hunchback who is openly ridiculed by many, who has been in love with Maya since childhood. Vicky sees Maya seducing and bedding the king and is distressed and furious! On the wedding day as Tara is leaving the palace to go to her new palace Maya whispers to her "All my life I have lived with your used things but now something I have used is yours forever." Tara doesn't quite understand this and at the same time Vicky tells his mother that he wants to marry Maya and she must arrange it for him. Maya is approached with this proposal and refuses, and an enraged Vicky tells his mother of Maya's betrayal with his sister's husband on the eve of the wedding. The queen throws Maya out of the palace banishing her from the kingdom. Maya roams the land alone and lost. Tara rejects her husband's sexual advances as she has heard how painful sex is supposed to be the first time and he calls her "Maya". So the king leaves her bed and takes more and more opium and more and more mistresses and no one is happy. On her travels Maya meets Jai Kumar, the king's sculptor, who falls for her seductive charms and she becomes his most favoured model and lover. Maya falls in love with Jai and for the first time in her life she feels out of control. In the meantime the king is still obsessed with Maya, pretty much ignores his wife and continues to bed other women when he's not searching high and low around the kingdom for Maya.

What happens when the king catches up with Maya? What is the king's relationship with Jai Kumar? Do Tara or Maya ever achieve happiness in their lives? Just how vindictive can people be in the name of love and lust and revenge? I would rate this 7 out of 10. It's a very sensuous and beautifully filmed piece of work with excellent acting (whether or not you like the characters). For those who like romance, with historical drama and jealousy and spite all rolled into one, this is worth watching. Also if you like soft-core sex you might want to check it out too! To summarise the story I'd say it was predominantly about a poor girl trying to get revenge over a rich girl after years of being made to feel inferior even though they are brought up as best friends and by seducing the latter's husband on her wedding night she extracts the best revenge she possibly can, although ultimately this leads to tragedy.

Fmovies: I saw this movie and I loved it. It was powerfully beautiful and the character of Maya was unbelievable. (I was pleased to share the name with her.) Indira Varma did a wonderful job and I was completely taken with it. I recommend this movie, although will not be liked by everyone. It is truly a work of art.

I first saw this movie about 4 years ago. And upon the first viewing I was dis-appointed about 15 mins into it. I'm sure most males are attracted to this film simply by the title... Kama Sutra. LOL. I was disappointed because on first glance I did not find Maya and Tara attractive. Yes I know, how lame of me to judge a film based on the looks of the actresses. In my defense, the title threw me off as I was expecting something highly erotic and very porn-ish. However, other than the title of the movie I've heard accolades from critics about this movie... so I manage to finish the movie. I remember thinking wow, not too shabby, the film wasn't what I expected. It really is a tale of love. I've just viewed the movie three times in the last couple of days and at last I'm really appreciating the film.

The acting are superb and I think Indira Varma was a newcomer at that time. I think she played Maya perfectly... Her performance reminds me of how impressive Natalie Portman was in Leon as a totally unknown. Although Natalie was much younger with her debut. It was a delight watching Indira portraying the deep emotions and the hard life of Maya being always in Tara's shadow. My favorite scene was when Maya and Jai reunited. The music/score was perfect and the acting was heart felt I think they have perfect chemistry.

The sets and costumes were colorful and rich. The cinematography was stunning. Character development was complete and the pace of the story was quite good never a wasted moment. This is one of my favorite films about love. It encompasses a lot more than merely the thought of "Kama Sutra" conjures up. It is also about girl going into woman hood. Please enjoy the film with a open mind and I think you will find its true beauty that is rarely matched.

One other film that's a personal favorite is Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon which is directed by Ang Lee. I grew up in Taiwan, but spent most of my life in California and I'm well versed in both the traditional Chinese culture as well as contemporary American. I understood perfectly what Ang wanted to do. There's a big similarity in the fact that both directors made the film for the _foreign_ audiences. I think these films should not be completely judged on its accuracy, but rather, from the director's vision and what they wanted to accomplish. In both cases I think the directors were perfect.

Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love fmovies. i admire mira nair's films. she clearly loves India and its culture, a fact evident in all of her films i've had the pleasure of seeing. but her real art is showing her passion through so many prisms. vanity fair showed us India from the British home perspective which we usually see from western directors, while salaam bombay showed us modern urban India at its most destitute and triumphant. monsoon wedding introduces to the rapidly expanding Indian middle class, providing us with a far more intimate appreciation of her subjects than we might get calling for tech support for our computers or trying to understand a credit card bill.

kama sutra shows us India through yet another prism. first a prism of history, which she lushly recreates, and then through a prism of sexuality, which she (rightly) brandishes as legacy of a great and ancient culture. perhaps she suggests that the British morality imposed by the empire attempted, with some success, to obscure a vibrant and enthusiastic sexuality. well, if British sex is anything like British food, and Indian sex is like Indian food, she might have a point. curiously, i've been told that if you want to eat good English food in London, go curry.

i don't think that nair's ultimately interested in instructing us on sexual physics, or in telling us an epic melodrama. but through her four characters, she reveals love and sex as they are manifest continuously through the human story. a king imposes himself on his queen (patriarchy and rape), a king demands his coutesan (adultery and carnality), unrequited love (every character, each with a twist), jealousy, shame, sex as love, sex as passion, sex as brutality, and so on. the shades of sex that she reveals through her characters' relations are familiar, and she artfully sketches the nuances in three dimensions, where you rarely see more than one or two in Hollywood tripe. yet, like a good tikka masala, the chicken is familiar, but the colors and the flavor are distinctly and marvelously Indian.

Having read The Kama Sutra and having found it disappointing, I figured this late night showing couldn't be anymore disappointing than the text of the same name in translation. The subtitle, A Tale of Love, does help inform the potential viewer that this is not a hot porn flick.

The few pieces of Indian literature I have read treated love stories similarly. I was curious though, as to how the Bombay movie industry would treat this story, knowing they do no show kissing in the romantic films for domestic consumption. IMDb was the source I turned to to learn more about this film and its production. Thank you for the answers.

This movie is a fine tragedy carefully told in the context of 16th century India. It portrays a woman's plight in that time, marry or be a courtesan in a harem. By giving the women empowered roles the writers allow viewers to see that while today would would find those roles unacceptable, some women of those days could find satisfaction, if not happiness. The mistress of the courtesan school gave everyone her pupils a view of the truth and their options, even before the women were ready to see them.

The movie also contains moral lessons. Maia misuses her sexuality to her own detriment. The princess, could not buy happiness. The sculptor rejects Maia's love out of fear for loss of his independence, then gets paid back in kind.

This is a captivating story I will watch again, to catch the dialog I missed while away from the television, and I rarely watch movies twice.

This film was wonderfully told to me. The characters where great, the location was magical, and the whole film just left me with a great feeling. I love Indira Varma, she is so beautiful and such a talented actress. The role of Queen Tara portrayed by Sarita Choudhury deserves mention also. I would recommend to anyone with an open mind. Though I was very young when I first watched it, it is for the more mature audience.