Mira Nair

(On Cable TV, July 2022) I started watching Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love knowing that I would be disappointed, and ultimately wasn’t—but not necessarily in the ways I expected. Unlike most of the films titled “Kama Sutra,” this one is not pornographic nor about sex education: it’s a historical romantic drama from noted filmmaker Mira Nair, an Oscar-nominated critical darling whose films never stoop to crass exploitation. Part of my interest in the film (which, broadcast on a serious cable TV channel, just happened to be a DVR “Record” click away) was to see how Nair would approach a subject matter often misrepresented as faux eroticism by lesser filmmakers. The result is… surprising. The slickness of the production is obvious—the colourful cinematography, the deliberate camerawork, the artfully staged sequences and tight editing. The script also starts poking, early on, at familiar notions of romantic drama: much of the best early scenes have to do with older women teaching younger ones about manipulating men, for instance. Much of the rest of the plot falls upon familiar material—two women competing for the same man, one of them contending with an abusive partner, etc. But cinematography is where the film shines. The sex scenes alone are spectacularly shot, and that’s not going into the rest of the film’s historical recreation. While mid-1990s films haven’t aged badly in general, Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love still looks terrific today thanks to sticking with the basics of clear visuals and not going for trendy effects. In the end, the film won me over thanks to its atmosphere, clever directing and luscious cinematography—not quite what I was expected in tackling a film knowing that it wouldn’t be nearly as risqué as its title.