Jism is a film driven by lust, breathing sensuality, as three actors defy the gaze of a sexually starved audience and take voyeurs through an experience of the places it explores with a languid camera brushing past green outdoors dripping with lush, and revealing the bodies of a woman and two men, unabashedly, drawing viewers towards their innermost desires and permitting them to share personal moments of passion and love as a story unfolds simplistically.
Like Jism, Jism 2 is unapologetic and deals with a subject that all of India is shy to discuss but that which all of Indian media devours and exploits to gain the trp, readership and success with every opportunity it gets, be it the molestation of a young girl outside a nightclub in Guwahati or an MMS floated by a young school student about another girl giving a blow job to her boyfriend.
The hypocrisy of our society is so deeply rooted that its double standards come glaring to the fore when most elite media trashes a film like Jism 2 and when a harsher reality is, that at the box office it tears past all previous records.
I remember a few months ago when another friend, Vivek Agnihotri's 'Hate Story' was released and it went breaking box office records as was expected. The same pseudo critic who has gone on a limb taking off on Jism 2 was mostly quiet. Why?...
I'll tell you...
It was because 'Hate Story' was made by a man.
There was sex, violence, powerful dialogue and an intense script backing a film which Indian audiences were waiting with bated breath for. I could hear the heaves and sighs on twitter despite the silence of these hypocrites who today have the audacity to criticize a successful Jism 2.
They do it, and get the courage to do it because there is a woman director, Pooja Bhatt, the maker of the film on the top here, giving no concessions to flesh just because the domain is primarily considered to be that of a man's, yes, in India, sex is to be enjoyed, created, recreated and expressed by a man in a mans world only, therefore these men and women tapping away at their keys aimlessly, don't know what else to do but to spill venom.
Women making films, the big ticket ones, most successful commercially, Farah Khan and Zoya Akhtar, who too have pushed the envelope and broken the norm, have yet to crossover from fun flicks or romantic flicks to hard hitting, straight in the face punching, cinema dealing with sex, violence, death and its ramifications.
Or else they say, women must stay with art and realism, non commercial, as it is a space in the industry which has been allotted to them, yet so reluctantly.
I know for a fact how hard it is for a woman to express herself honestly in the world of Television and Cinema in India. I struggle to survive it every day. I release my need to speak, here on my blog and through the smallest opportunities I get, whether it is through the making of a short film, writing a play or via the making of a documentary film.
So when another friend, Pooja Bhatt, charges past all male detractors with a defiance and makes the films she chooses to produce, direct or write, I salute her.
She has the guts, the finesse, the panache and the ability to supply her craft upon an audience which she knows limits her sensibilities, but one she also knows, accepts her art when she speaks the language they dare not admit that they understand.
For in India for many years still to come...
... they will not admit that women love sex.
... they will not admit that men like to have sex with women every single day of their lives.
... they will not admit that men fantasize having sex with women of all different colors, shapes and sizes.
... they will not admit that women fantasize the same about men as men do about women.
... they will not admit that from the day Pooja Bhatt announced that she was casting a porn star as the main lead of her film, they have been waiting for it to be completed and released, so that they can rush to see it at the first show that they can get themselves to...
... they will not admit that they find the pace of the film slow only because in all those moments that Sunny Leone was not having sex with the two absolutely divine hunks, they actually wished that she was devouring them, and they virtually prayed that the dialogue would end soon so that sex and nudity could take over again...
... they will not admit that they can't wait to see the porn star in her next film...
... and most Indian women dare not admit that when Sunny Leone touched Arunodaya Singhs nipple, they fantasized doing the same...
... and so on and so forth...
Fact is, that the BOX OFFICE speaks the truth. Jism 2 is a BIG HIT and Pooja Bhatt has the verve, the sophistication and passion to do next, exactly as she would like to because she has made enough money on this one, to do that!
Pooja is a star who breeds stardom and unlike the rest of this apologetic population, she speaks her mind through her aesthetically created visuals and honest work which she has intelligently defined for herself, to achieve commercial success.
I, as a woman filmmaker myself, am jealous of her!
Comments
I am with you as I read every single line of what you have put down in the male vs female debate on this issue which we as a nation thrive on.
its true after all - a man who plays women is a stud while a woman who plays "men" is a slut. Till this line of thought changes, nothing ever will even among the "educated" media.
God Bless
-Aroona-