utsav

October 4 movie: Utsav. Tonight we had Bollywood night at Sylvia's new house. Which is freaking adorable! We declared the house in danger of imploding from its own sheer adorableness.

We had Indian food from Sitar India Palace, and watched Utsav. This is a movie I had rented a couple of months ago, and ended up sending back to Netflix unwatched because we could never settle on a day to watch it. So I was really glad Sylvia rented it again.

Utsav is a historical melodrama starring the impossibly beautiful Rekha. She plays, guess what? A courtesan with a heart of gold! So far I've seen 3 of her movies, and in each she played ... a courtesan with a heart of gold. It's kind of a tragedy, but only for Rekha; things turn out pretty well for everyone else. There's a surprising amount of low humor, not at all like Umrao Jaan which was fairly serious as I remember it. Utsav is set way in the past (based on a 6th century play according to IMDB). There's a political conflict: some guy named Aryak trying to start a revolution and overthrow a despotic king. And the author of the Kama Sutra is living at Rekha's brothel, peeping on the courtesans to do "research" for his "sex manual." Sure buddy, we've heard that one before.

Utsav is notable for being the most sexually explicit Bollywood movie I've ever seen. Like all Bollywood movies, it doesn't show kissing. But while most of these movies settle for handholding, hugs, and the occasional nuzzle, Utsav shows naked people rolling over so that you can't see their faces while they kiss. Early on Rekha seduces her love interest by having him remove her jewelry, and she is wearing a lot of jewelry. There's also an erotic bath, a forty-second sex act (sounds ludicrous but it's actually kind of hot), and toe sucking. If you want to see a sexy Bollywood movie, this is the one for you.