Kisses and Cinema

A look into the perverse

Haven't watched it yet!

Okay guys, today we will venture into a land which mostly remained uncharted. Yes, we are going to talk about kiss and stuff, of course not about our own personal intimacy or experiences but the cinematic representation of a highly important act of our lives.

A few days ago, my Facebook acquaintance Mr. Pradeep Biradar shared a clip of a kissing scene from a Marathi web series, Samantar. He asked us to review this scene.

Link to the post: Click Here

As you can see, this particular kissing scene is so hilarious and the comments on this post are even more hilarious. After having a good laugh, it got me thinking about kissing and sex scenes in cinema in general. Why some kisses on-screen feel good, interesting and much needed while some don't. 

Disclaimer: I'm not a subject expert but I will try my best to find out the exact reason why some kisses appeal more to me than the others. My views may or may not match with yours and that's fine because sexuality varies from person to person.

Kissing, Sex, Nudity, and Cinema:

Kissing is present in cinema from the early iteration of the art. In black and white or in color, in a square or in wide-angle, in film or in digital and it has become a necessary part of storytelling. It has evolved over time. We have so many types of kisses now; we have PG 13 kisses, we have animated kisses, we have X rated and banned kisses.

My personal favorite example of necessary nudity. This frame expresses the whole essence of the movie Children of Men.
This frame is a piece of art.

Kissing wasn't a part of the Indian film industry and all that we ever got as cues of intimacy between our characters were heavy rainfall, thunders, foaming in the boiling milk or the dance of flowers that represented sexual acts. As a kid I never caught them but now when I look back at it, I just feel pity for Indian cinema. 

Not saying there weren't any kisses in the 70s or 80s but they did not appeal to me because mainstream Indian cinema up until recently always projected this sanskari, platonic and pure form of 'love' devoid of any earthly passion. 

When the on-screen kissing and (joke of a) sex did become common in Indian cinema, it was blatantly used to sell and cash on from poor quality softcore porn (is it even arousing?). Females are shamelessly objectified under this kind of nudity (?) and make Indian cinema unwatchable, alone or with our family. 

The objectification of women in cinema is almost an entire topic and I don't want to divert to that but it needs to be mentioned whenever we talk about the film industry.

For now, I will only talk about a few of my favorite kissing sequences and why they were necessary and worked well in those films.

1. Kiss as a new beginning (Film: Masaan)

I watched Masaan for the first time yesterday and it is a good movie. 

Link to the kiss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSF0VYun2NE

Two young characters, Deepak and Shaalu fall in love. They are both experiencing love for the first time in their lives. Both are out on their second date, had fun and now sitting at the side of a beautiful lake. 

After all the words are expressed, there is something yet unshared. Some emotions can only be expressed by our bodies and I am not accounting for the sexual desires but the feeling of belonging, the feeling of being in safe heaven of our own. 

A much needed and ice-breaking kiss.

While showing her ring, Shaalu keeps her hand over the hand of Deepak and keeps it there for a while. This is her making him think of the kiss. A few frames pass and Deepak is 'pyaari ho, pyaar aa gaya.'

Deepak first tries to kiss her, hesitates but then both agree to do it evenly and she is in his embrace now. The first attempt is kind of uneven so both try to pull the act together. This reminds us of our own first kiss, the awkwardness, and the hesitation yet wanting of the embrace from the other party involved. 

This kiss is the official start of their relationship which makes sure that they will stay together for a lifetime.

A beautiful expression of innocence as well as the maturing of their relationship. A transition from friendship to companionship without uttering the three magical (?) words.

2. Kiss as an expression of breaking free (Film: Baby Driver, Rockstar)

In Edgar Wright's Baby Driver, we see the life of Baby, a guy who is living a life of a moral 'criminal' and is pretty much running away from everything in his life because of, uh, reasons (don't want to spoil it). Baby meets Deborah in a cafe where she is working as a waitress. While Baby is numb to the criminal life, Deborah has never gone out of her normal American working girl routine. And then Bam! A guy gets shot in front of her and now in this whole scene, she's shaking and scared to the bone. Baby holds her hand and tries to run away, Deborah not knowing what is happening asks 'What's happening Baby?' and then we get this intense one second kiss. 

This, right here, is my favorite kiss of all time.

The setting up and the aftermath of the whole movie are based on this one small kiss. No single word is shared about what's happening. Just a kiss. After this kiss, Deborah runs away with Baby while being chased by the police. Here, Deborah breaks free from her own boring, routine life and is being freed by her passion for our Baby. Baby also is trying to get relieved from his burden by sharing it with Deborah.

See the way the feeling of the camera going up creeps as Deborah and Baby kiss. Edgar Wright has always been stylish with his flicks so the camerawork and lighting are just perfect to express the whole adrenaline rush our characters are going through and the intensity of the whole situation.

The dialogue they had earlier makes this kiss more impactful. 

Deborah: And what do you want, Baby?

Baby: I want us to head west on twenty, in a car we can’t afford, with a plan we don’t have. Keep driving and never stop.

Deborah: Are you serious?

Baby: I am, Deborah. You in?

Deborah: I’m in, Baby.

"You don't belong to this world''
'Easy' playing in the background. Too many emotions and I try my best not to cry.

A few frames later they share a kiss. But this time, it's Baby who is being freed from his life of a criminal. He finally stops running away from everything and finally is ready to face the world that he spend his whole life distancing from. 

Now, the earlier kiss was all about instinct and hurry and running away so they only kissed for a second. But here, where he finally confronts the real pace of his life, the kiss is longer, smoother and relieving.

Link to the kiss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHltDaQU1uc
                           https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fcP39FULdA

Another instance where a kiss is used for breaking free from the social constructs is Imtiaz Ali's Rockstar. Rockstar is my favorite Hindi movie of all time but here I'll only talk about the kisses between Ranbir and Nargis Fakhri.

We need more movies like this!!!!

Now, when I first watched Rockstar in 2011, I was a 14-year-old kid. Plus I was watching this movie with my family. And while I enjoyed the earlier part of the movie for its humor, I hated the later part for all the kissing. And my family felt uncomfortable watching all of those scenes so I was told to change the channel. 

As a kid, my idea of love was very platonic very puritan. Love basically meant talking with each other and laughing and roaming together. The whole act of kissing and sex felt vulgar and unnecessary to me. So I did not understand the movie but absolutely hated its excessive use of it.

I watched the movie again in 2017 and God I love this movie. It's now THE best Indian movie for me like I said earlier. With that crucial detail aside, let's move to the kiss.

So Rockstar is basically about a young, passionate man being deprived of his freedom of expression. May it be the expression of love or his art.

Anger. Rage. Hate. Frustration.

Janardan and Heer unknowingly fall in love with each other but its too late because her marriage is already fixed. Janardan stays with her as a friend, both never confessing their love for each other but deep down aware of each other's affection. Heer after her Marriage goes to Prague while our poor Jordan, now completely saddened by Heer's absence keeps working for his passion for music. Even Heer, married to a crazy rich guy is not happy and is constantly falling sick, seeking medication for physical and mental issues.

Somehow Jordan arranges his music tour to Prague in hopes of meeting Heer. It's a bolly flick so they actually get to meet each other. After some throwback fun, they come upon a hill, Heer finally is happy and have forgotten about her sickness or worries. Janardan now relieved in Heer's presence.

But there is something still missing. They were together back then, they are together even now but why they feel distant from each other? What is it that's missing in between these birds? 

Yes, the light. 

While the flames of passion were there from the get-go, they never got burned in them. Janardan finally lights up the fire with his lips and we get one of the most passionate kiss in the Bollywood.

My parents had enough of it here.

This kiss is so wild and many directors nowadays try to emulate it, hell even many of us actual lovers have tried to do something this wild but we failed. This kiss is only possible when an eternal longing, frustration, rage flavored with existential angst is present in your relationship. To understand this kiss or this movie, you have to have been in love. There is no other way. 

This and later kisses in the movie only work because of the struggle for freedom presented in the movie. Janardan is constantly seeking absolute freedom while Heer bound by the slavery of marriage cannot be with him. The moments they get to share can be the last one and thus the intensity skyrockets in their meets. These moments are the only times when Heer is actually free. 

Link to the kiss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-YTqs8incM


3. Kiss as Just a Kiss (Film: Band Baaja Baaraat)

While we in psychology or philosophy see the sex, hugs, and kisses as something more than a physical act but at the end of the day, it's just an initiator of the sexual act. And who doesn't love a good kiss, eh? While many movies try to bring those over the top, aggressive kisses which feel nothing more than a joke for a grown-up person; a few try to make them as grounded as possible within the realm of cinema. 

One example is Bittu and Shruti's kiss in Band Baaja Baaraat.

It just works.

Link to the kiss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww-lS-LGjow

Kissing is an art and it's sort of like a dance. It has to have a rhythm to be more fun. I like the way this is acted and shot. The movement of the camera and the eye contact before both of them close their eyes brings the viewer on the edge of their seat, will they do it or will they not.

Now I only watched half of the movie and it is shit but this scene is great, not talking about the 'sex' that happens later. This is how a kiss should be acted and shot. It feels very natural. Plus both the actors at that time were constantly with each other off-screen so maybe it's because of that. Who knows.

So that's it, guys. These movies are incomplete without these crucial scenes and I'm always up for a good scene. Because when we ourselves do it our eyes are closed but on screen, we get to see what really happens in the (heat of the) moment. And if directors want us to see what don't see usually then they should make it either artistic or simple.

Do you agree with it or do you completely trash these scenes? Do you have any other examples? Do you think sex and nudity in cinemas are needed or not? and why? Do write in the comments.