Lightdeossk Captivating movie !

BallWubba Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Loui Blair It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Paynbob It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

gavin6942 Set in 16th century India, this movie depicts the story of two girls who were raised together, though they came from different social classes. Tara (Sarita Choudhury) is an upper-caste princess while Maya (Indira Varma) is her beautiful servant. The two girls are best friends, but an undercurrent of jealousy and resentment is caused by Tara's haughtiness, symbolized by the fact that Maya is given Tara's hand-me-down clothes and never anything new to wear.During filming in India, the name of the project was not revealed to government officials who would have denied the petition to film in India had it been called "Kama Sutra." Instead, it was called "Maya & Tara." Since government officials made many periodic visits to the set to ensure proper Indian film etiquette, the cast had to improvise fake scenes which avoided the nudity and sexuality central to the story. Upon completion, authorities screened the film and it was subsequently banned in India because of the erotic scenes that contained heterosexual as well as homosexual elements.What really caught my attention about this film was Naveen Andrews. At the time he made this film, he was unknown, and remained largely unknown after the film. But then he was a main character in "Lost". I wonder how many people went back to see his past work, as it would completely change the way they might see him. It is also interesting that he has been cast in roles as both an Indian and an Iraqi. (Andrews happens to be a British-born Indian.)

Python Hyena Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996): Dir: Mira Nair / Cast: Naveen Andrews, Sarita Choundhury, Roman Tikaram, Indira Varma, Rekha: Looks more like a documentary than a feature film and sometimes contains the feel of a porn flick. It regards the confusion between love and lust and the physical and emotional. Set in India where it follows the sexual conquests of two males towards a woman named Maya. Actually it is two sisters who are the initial competitors. One is set to marry a ruler while the other is given to his courtesan. Maya seduces the ruler in a spite of revenge and flees. She encounters a tribesman with a chisel and he carves her image as a statue. The ruler will pay him for her identity. Laced with sex, sex and more sex before arriving at a very fatal conclusion. Beautiful music and stunning set pieces with fine directing by Mira Nair. Fine cast includes Naveen Andrews as the vengeful Prince whom will never receive the love he seeks due too his pride. Sarita Choundhury is Tara, Maya's sister. Roman Tikaram is the tribesman who faces fatal consequences for his dance with erotica. Indira Varma plays Maya whom must live with her actions. Rekha plays some sort of teacher of Kama Sutra. So, basically, she is a sex education representative. It is a film about sacrifice but Kama Sutra means various acts of lovemaking. Is this film suppose to be a guide? Score: 6 / 10

gelman@attglobal.net POSSIBLE SPOILERS: Much more has been heard from Mira Nair since "Kama Sutra: A Love Story," but comparatively little from Indira Varma, who at the time the movie was made, may have been the most beautiful woman alive. Both clothed and naked, she is so gorgeous as to defy description. Nair and her co-author have devised a more-than-serviceable plot about the rivalry between the well-born Tara (Sirita Chouldhury) and her playmate and servant Maya (Varma). When Tara is betrothed to Raj Singh (Naveen Andrews), the jealous Maya seduces him prior to the wedding. After leaving her home to take advanced instruction in the Kama Sutra, Maya falls in love with Kumar (Ramon Tikarum), a sculptor, who rebuffs her after a consuming love affair because she so fills his imagination that he finds himself unable to create. Her heart broken by her lover's rejection, Maya becomes Raj Singh's courtesan and steels his love from Tara, the queen. Kumar finds he cannot live without Maya and finds her in the harem, where he is discovered and condemned to a spectacular and particularly brutal death. The dissolute Raj Singh is then overwhelmed by enemy forces led on behalf of Persia by Tara's hunchbacked brother, who had once sought Maya for his wife, and Maya wanders off into the Indian mists as the film ends. Indira Varma -- half English and half Indian by birth -- has subsequently enjoyed a rather minor career, mostly in television. But when this film was made, there was no one in Hollywood, Bollywood or any other center in the film making industry who was a more striking beauty.

jannings True, this movie does not match Mira Nair's earlier movies such as Mississippi Masala and Salaam Bombay! It is also true that much of the movie's pace is sodden and the plot is fairly predictable. And yes, unfortunate feminist tendencies creep in from time to time. But the presence alone of the incomparable Indira Varma is worth the price of admission—or the price of renting the DVD.What makes this movie valuable is its sumptuousness, as many critics noted when it premiered. The sexuality is intense; the locations in northern India are stunning; the costumes are well wrought and the music is convincing. Westerners are used in some ways to seeing movies about India, especially India of the British Raj. But this movie is set in the 16th century, well before Western influences had set in. But what makes the movie so fascinating is the "Westernized" vision that emanates from the four lead actors, all of whom were either born in or grew up in England. Indira Varma was born, I think, in Kent; Ramon Tikaram, whose voice is as resonant as any movie actor's heard in the last thirty years, grew up in Germany and later moved with his family to England. Naveen Andrews was born in London, as was Sarita Choudury. These four actors share nearly all the movie's focus, and they are thoroughly westernized. They, and directoress Nair, all got away with filming this movie under the noses of the Indian authorities. As a result, there is a delightful seditious quality to the work. But the most delightful of all is the aforementioned Indira Varma, whose stunning beauty and sexual intensity almost leap off the screen. At times she is playful, at others deeply distressed, at other times she seeks vengeance. Repeatedly she embraces her destiny with what seems to be her entire being: rarely has an actress in recent films been able so to concentrate on and immerse herself in the dangers, the hope, the expectations, and the benevolence that surround her. What a woman! And what an artist. Like all great artists, she transcends the limits of culture, critical distinctions, and artificial categorization.