Shock Value

8220;There8217;s simply no surprise value left, no mystery to cinema,8221; justifies writer-director Karan Razdan. 8220;The more you shock audiences, the better they like it.8221;

No wonder then, that his next film is titled Shock. It8217;s a foray into India8217;s top business houses through a tycoon8217;s young bride, played by Kaliyon ka chaman girl Meghna Naidu. Looking for love, her character has a steamy affair with a male model. 8220;We are showing that no amount of diamonds, Mercs and planes will get you love,8221; shrugs Razdan, who starts shooting in September.

In Qayamat8217;s case, director Harry Baweja wanted to give his 8220;grey characters an edge8221; and so created a meacute;nage agrave; trois. 8220;They had to be cynical and eccentric. The simple way was the shock value of a threesome.8221;

Director N Chandra may have created the thriving cheeky comedy genre with his Style, but he draws a line in his sequel Excuse Me. Its promos show fingers wandering towards heaving bosoms, but nothing much besides. 8220;I8217;m catering to college boys and I8217;m also from a typical middle class background. I wouldn8217;t take up lesbianism or masturbation in my films.8221;

Yet even more forthcoming Hindi films will dump the culture curry that flavoured Bollywood. Deepak Tijori8217;s stripper story Oops has jocks strutting their stuff until older woman Mita Vashist bids for one of them. 8220;My character Sharon is the real player8212;she picks up boys for more than just stripping,8221; Mita elaborates. Mumbai Matinee has 34-year-old timid virgin Rahul Bose wanting to just end all the suspense.

In Manish Jha8217;s Matribhoomi selected for the Venice film festival, Tulip Joshi is a Draupadi shared by five brothers and the father-in-law who 8216;paid8217; for her wants his piece too. In Boom, there is a suggestion of some under-the-table sexual activity for Jackie Shroff. In fact, the hit Jhankaar Beats already made a joke out of Rinke Khanna giving Rahul Bose a blow job and crowds just guffawed.

Have Indian audiences suddenly stopped being squeamish? Says Pritish Nandy, whose firm produced both Jhankaar Beats and Mumbai Matinee, 8220;Neither the condoms nor virginity were used as shock devices. But makers have always underestimated the intelligence of audiences. They are irritated with the trash and melodrama that have been peddled. We8217;re trying to set that right.8221;

Even this melodrama is seeing change. Shah Rukh Khan8217;s home production Chalte Chalte had the reigning queen of Bollywood, Bobby Darling, joining in Raj and Priya8217;s maha pujas. Juhi Chawla, playing a documentary film-maker in Teen Deewarein, furiously accuses her husband of 8220;not getting it up8221;. And Jackie, who played the lovable dad in Subhash Ghai8217;s Yaadein, has no qualms about the Boom scene.

Says wife and Boom8217;s producer Ayesha, 8220;It8217;s a very tongue-in-cheek scene that leaves it to your dirty imaginations. Audiences may find overt lovemaking a bit much to swallow, but this isn8217;t vulgar. Jackie loves to experiment and is least concerned about his image8212;he is a glamourous underworld guy in Boom.8221;

But perhaps Vashist sums it up the best. 8220;I8217;ve done a nude scene years ago for Mani Kaul8217;s Siddeswari. Oops also has lovemaking scenes, but it8217;s so much better than the throw-your-head-back orgasms that were only shown in Hindi cinema. If the audience is given an aesthetic scene, you can show them anything.8221;