- Title: INDIA: BOLLYWOOD'S LATEST OFFERING "JISM" IS AN EROTIC THRILLER
- Date: 23rd January 2003
- Summary: NEW DELHI, INDIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) SOUNDBITE (English) POOJA BHATT, PRODUCER OF 'JISM', SAYING: "Jism again is within the Idiom of Hindi cinema but it speaks a language that's completely its own. It speaks a language that represents today. It has issues that are relevant to the people of today, that are very primal. I think the issues that anybody anywhere in the world ca
- Embargoed: 7th February 2003 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NEW DELHI, INDIA
- Country: India
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVACB3P3GY1A6WWATLCBCUCAGH3N
- Story Text: Bollywood's latest offering, Jism (Urdu for The Body), is an erotic thriller dripping with steamy sex scenes which is drawing the masses to cinema halls across this movie-mad nation.
Bollywood's latest release, 'Jism', a steamy thriller with an extra marital affair and a murder mystery as its underlying theme, has caught the fancy of the cinema going public in India.
Indian film makers, struggling to cast off the demons of a miserable 2002, are turning to bold adult themes with a liberal dose of sex to lure viewers back to cinema halls.
Model-turned actress Bipasha Basu teams up with a former modeling colleague John Abrahim in this erotic thriller shot on the exotic beaches of Pondicherry in western India.
The storyline treads uncharted territory for often conservative Bollywood movies with the lead actress, breaking away from the conventional good girl image, portraying a character with shades of grey.
The film's producer Pooja Bhatt, herself an actress, says the film deals with the primal issues of greed, jealousy, sex and lust.
"Jism again is within the idiom of Hindi cinema but it speaks a language that's completely its own. It speaks a language that represents today. It has issues that are relevant to the people of today, that are very primal. I think they're issues that anybody anywhere in the world can relate to. It deals with jealousy, with sexual longing, with greed, with power, with lust. And you can be in China, or in Bihar or Bombay and you can deal with, you can relate with the feeling of wanting to posses someone. So it is very primal," Bhatt said.
Made at a moderate budget of a little over 30 million rupees (US$ 625,000) the film was shot in a hectic 41 days, another rarity for Bollywood known for its slow productions.
The story revolves around an alcoholic lawyer, a wild casanova with a passion for wine and women. But a chance encounter with a young, sexy and dangerously ambitious wife of a middle-aged industrialist exposes him to needs, emotions and crime.
The sexual chemistry between the couple intensifies with each encounter and blinds them to the point where they decide to plot the murder of her husband. The trouble starts when the lawyer realizes that his lover is merely using him to get her husband's riches.
The film's heroine, played by Bipasha Basu, is a relatively new character for Bollywood - a woman aware of her sexuality and not at all apologetic about manipulating it to get what she wants.
"A film like Jism has never been made in India. It is a proper adult mature love story. When I say adult and mature I don't mean because of the aspect of attraction playing into it, its not just because of that. Its emotional level is very high in this film. Its not like boy meets girl, love at first sight, innocent love..." Basu says.
Even the film's promos on various television channels and its posters plastered across the cities, focus on its bold theme and suggestive sexual scenes.
Sex scenes in Hindi films to date have been largely confined to suggestive poses and it is the boldness of addressing sexual themes in 'Jism' that seems to be luring people in to cinemas.
The film's director Amit Saxena, a former film editor who makes his directorial debut, says the film depicts a new image of India.
"Its a relationship between two very very bold young individuals. We have tried to create an absolutely new Indian woman, a woman who is completely.. she completely knows what she wants, she knows her strengths, and whatever she wishes to achieve, she gets there through whatever means are available to her. So she is somebody completely in control of her sexuality, and she knows what effect she has on men and she just goes and gets what she wants."
And if the initial rush at India's cinema halls is anything to judge by, the viewing public is ready for this kind of woman.
Sanjeev Walia, general manager of the up-market PVR cinema in the Indian capital's western suburbs says:
"The Box office is doing very well, of all movies Jism is doing very well because its a bold movie and people like these kind of movies at the moment."
Priya Rajpal, a college student who bunked her class to see the film, said she found it very appealing.
"The film was quite good we saw the movie and its exciting. Its good," Rajpal said.
But for Suraj Prakash, another film buff, the titillation is a cheap trick that cannot make up for the other weaknesses in the film.
"There's nothing special about the film, the only thing is Bipasha Basu is exposing a lot, nothing else," Prakash said.
And whether punters are paying money to see a rare and racy romp through Bollywood's nether regions - or to see a serious and forward-looking film that charts a new course for Bollywood - the cash registers are ringing once again for India's flagging film industry. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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