"India is the land of the Kamasutra" - the cliché many Indian actresses, actors and models use to justify their brazen sexiness on screen. We've been hearing it for so long now that we have taken it for granted - the sexual undertones, overtures and acting is taken as "natural". Yes we have the Kamasutra culture - but it was a treatise of conjugal sex and the art of foreplay. It was not a license to promote cheap sexual moves or brazen sex scenes.

And the beautiful Indian people especially the women see it as a pride to be considered a sex symbol.Now I am no puritan, I love being, feeling and looking sexy, in a way that is chic and aesthetic. But when I watch music videos and films , even when I flip through women's magazines. I squirm in my seat. That sexiness leaves me feeling like an odd ball and it looks misplaced on them. Watch closely fashion and film - it all boils down to cheap sizzling titillation! Why? I've asked myself once too many times. The reason is Indians are not used to being sexy, it is not a part of the social culture. Hence one has to be brazen to be sexy, it is not part of the routine.Unlike in the the legendry French culture!

So what is sexy? If you know Helen, Bollywood's yesteryear's cabaret artist you realize she is sexy without being a porn star. She carried of sexiness with elegance.So my Mom could watch those dances with her Mom way back in the 60's.This is something our movie stars and models lack today. I'll make the exception for a few models and actresses. Preity Zinta comes to mind. Let me not blame the stars and the models, but the dance and film directors with their cliché - this is what the masses want - Sex or something close to it.


What we need is the beautiful art of being sexy and feminine.It does look good on a techni-colour film screen or glossy magazine page. But I constantly find myself looking at skinny, toned, yet unsexy and unfeminine super models, who claim India is the land of the Kamasutra. I want to tell them read again. Sexiness is an art, a mind-set, it is in the body-language, not gyration of the hips.

From what I observe sexiness is portrayed as brazen or hidden, that is the Indian media's portrayal. Subtlety doesn't exist.