'Subtleties of human relationships succumb to crude depiction of sex'
14th Jan 2004
21.17 IST
By ApunKaChoice Bureau
Naked torsos, slicked-back hair and exaggerated, herky-jerky moves can be seen all over the entertainment world but they are not the sole trigger of sensuality as far as Pooja Bhatt is concerned.
She believes performers can add a subtle eroticism to every act they play even if they are clothed head to toe.
Pooja, who is in Delhi to promote her first film Paap as director, said that she detested crude depiction of sensuality that she feels robs lovemaking scenes in movies of any genuine emotion.
''You just do not have to show skin in order to arouse sensuality. It can be done otherwise also as was done in Jism in which the heroine wears a man's shirt and does a love-making scene.'' The 31-year-old director rather finds contemporary film presentation of ''sensuality'' devolving into ''sexuality''.
''Subtleties of human relationships and emotions succumb to crude depiction of sex,'' said Pooja.
In fact, navel-baring women do not merely offer perfect ingredient for all her present and future ventures.
''Paap, for instance, is a story about a girl stepping into womanhood. Brought up amid Buddhist monks of Spiti, she finds her attraction towards a man a sin and then there is internal conflict the protagonist undergoes.''
Jism, a story about an extra-marital affair, also dealt with a different aspect of human relationship, according to Pooja. ''The story was about an extra-marital affair, which means having physical intimacy. But its depiction was very refined.'' The actress-turned-producer-director says she believes in experimenting and wishes to bridge the gap between commercial and the ''so-called parallel'' cinema.
''You can make a film for commercial gains but at the same time offer the audiences a deep insight into characters. My film Paap, for example, carries songs and music and simultaneously deals with a subtle nuance of human nature.'' Pooja said she refrains from flying her audiences into a fantasy world. Tear-jerking run-of-the-mill TV sagas of Saas-Bahu, for instance, are ''fantasies far from the real world'', she said.
''Instead, you take solace watching an experiment like 'Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin' in which the protagonist is doing justice to her character.'' In terms of character treatment in movies, the debutante director admires Chinese films more than Hollywood flicks. ''The Chinese and Japanese treat such subjects more intelligently than US filmmakers. In contemporary Bollywood movies also the old formula doesn't just work. You have to both entertain and educate your audience.'' Cinema, she believes, has to portray human relationships on a variety of levels. Change brings about stress on these relationships -- at both personal and social levels -- and movies should focus on human experiences, according to Pooja.
''Audiences should be given an opportunity to discover who the characters are they are watching, where they have been, what they want.'' However, the director, like her father Mahesh Bhatt , admits that understanding audiences is still a mystery for filmmakers.
Naked torsos, slicked-back hair and exaggerated, herky-jerky moves can be seen all over the entertainment world but they are not the sole trigger of sensuality as far as 