Kissa kiss ka: Is Ash on a publicity trip?
Aishwarya Rai has been approached to play the Bond girl opposite Pierce Brosnan, a matter of pride for the subcontinent. In interviews that followed, Rai has been asked the same question: will she kiss 007, as most Bond girls do, willingly?
Ash has been circumspect. She knows the Indian media too well. Even an unsuspecting remark could be a headline: ‘Rai will kiss Brosnan’, or ‘Ash prepared to bond with Bond’, or ‘Rai will go all the way’.
Ash told the British Press that she’s agreed to appear in the next Bond film only if a body double is used for the sex scenes. Her strict upbringing, she added, would prevent her from doing anything saucy. “I’ve said I’ll do the film if there is a body double. The producers say they’ll have to ask Pierce,’’ she said. Pierce couldn’t be happy.
The focus here is on the kiss. Handsome as Brosnan may be, her answers have been neutral: from “I haven’t thought about it’’ to “I have made no such commitments”.
Too early to know if Ash is just on a publicity trip, but then a kiss is indeed big deal in India. It has affected Indo-Pak relations (although mostly it takes much less). A furor was created a couple of years back when author Khushwant Singh planted a party peck on the daughter of former Pakistani High Commissioner Ashraf Jehangir Qazi. Tenuous Indo-Pak relations took a further tumble. Qazi scurried off to Islamabad to kiss the feet of then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s feet, explaining that whole of Pakistan needn’t be outraged.
Worldwide, of course, a kiss always makes news. Bill Clinton regularly kissed Hillary on the forehead. Tennis ace Andre Agassi likes to plant sweaty lingering kisses on wife Steffi Graf between shots (not long ago Agassi did it to Brooke Shields). Continuing with tennis stars, the William sisters are regularly planted a ‘fatherly kiss’ by dad, in appreciation of their good work. And in Pretty Woman, Julia Roberts’ most ‘personal kiss’ was on the mouth, though she does the same on every other part of Richard Gere’s anatomy.
Indian women known for ‘kissing indiscretion’ haven’t gone down too well with the population. Young and over-enthusiastic Padmini Kolhapure went ‘all the way’ with Prince Charles, sending the tabloids into a tizzy. Shabana Azmi’s ‘freedom kiss’ on Nelson Mandela, too, caused heartburn.We’re supposed to be a liberal country. Yet, in this age of cyberporn, why is kissing such an issue in the land of Kama Sutra and Khajuraho?
There are several explanations. First, the stereotype set by Hindi films, the only national obsession apart from cricket (and there’s no scope for kissing in cricket). In Hindi films, a kiss is a really big issue, if at all it happens. The songs at most are about gyrations that approximate lovemaking with clothes on. But when it comes to a kiss, the heavens come down (an example being Aamir Khan and Karisma Kapoor’s rain kiss in Raja Hindustani). The common explanation is that because our films are family outings, kissing is a no-no (so what if brutal violence escapes censor cuts).
Recent crossover films aimed at the urban audiences have been bolder. One watched Lisa Ray going full-throated with Rahul Khanna in Bollywood Hollywood. Khwaish, a Bollywood flick released last year, had newcomers Mallika Sherawat and Himanshu Malik share 17 onscreen kisses.
Recent surveys have indicated promiscuity and frequency of sex among Indians is on the rise. Yet, smooching in public places is shunned. Call it Aishwarya’s bad ‘kiss-met’, but it’s surely discouraging her from smooching Brosnan.
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