Bollywood puckers up to lock lips

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><script language="javascript" src="Config?Configid=43376741"></script><br /><img align="left" src="/photo/30715.cms" alt="/photo/30715.cms" border="0" />Bollywood is puckering up... and how! If the year began on a steamy note with Bipasha Basu and John Abraham kissing away in <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Jism</span>, <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Khwahish</span> has raised mercury levels a few notches higher with its much publicised 17 smooching scenes.<br /><br />"For heavens sake, we were portraying a dating and then a married couple in <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Khwahish</span>.Don''t a husband and wife kiss?" queries Mallika Sherawat, who feels that the time has come for Bollywood to take the camera into the bedroom of celluloid couples.<br /><br />But being married has nothing to do with locking lips. In Kaizad Gustad''s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Boom</span>, Madhu Sapre and Jackie Shroff indulge in a long smooch, which is part of an elaborate seduction ritual three models perform to hoodwink three dons out of diamonds. Bold has suddenly become beautiful for Bollywood. "And why not?" says <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Khwahish</span> director Govind Menon, "Are they not sexual beings?"<br /><br />But director Mahesh Bhatt sees the "kissing revolution" as indicative of "both Bollywood and the audience growing up." In <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Jism</span>, feels Bhatt, the on-screen sexuality worked "since it was an extension of the feelings of the characters involved."<br /><br />Similarly, several upcoming films in the ''Hinglish'' genre portray characters at ease with their sexuality. According to Deepak Tijori, director of <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Oops</span>, "Kissing, as depicted in Indian cinema, has come full circle. Our earliest feature films showed the protagonists kissing. It was only later that kissing became a stigma and went underground."<br /><br />Adds Siddharth, director of <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Enjoy</span>, a movie about a farmhouse party which has shots of a couple kissing in a movie theatre, "This is reality. It happens all around us. When the city audience sees such scenes, it will accept it." <br /><br />At the same time, Tihori cautions against the insertion of kissing scenes just for the heck of it. "The storyline should require it. While kissing can bring out the relationship between a couple, forced introduction of such scenes will make everything seem contrived and the audience could feel uncomfortable."<br /><br />But what do actors feel about working up a passion believable enough for the audience? "It is a part of one''s job... one has to do it," says Aftab Shivdasani, who reportedly has a steamy exchange with Bipasha Basu in <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Footpath</span>. But passionate or not, kissing does not guarantee a film''s run at the box-office.<br /><br />"In the interiors, film-watching is still very much a family affair. One can''t ignore that market," warns a trade analyst. Meanwhile, Bollywood''s lips are busy kissing. Question is, will they prove to be lucky?</div> </div>