Best Of, Jay Kazim’s Pink Ludoos

So finally, you get to see what the big deal was about this long-awaited flick (it was released back in 2004). Please keep in mind that she chose to star under a pseudonym, for obvious reasons, and that’s why we are not going to go out of our way to make trouble for her. She might have broken a few taboos in her native land, but by any western standards, this is still fairly tame stuff.

This movie is not an off-shoot of the American Pie series. It is a serious movie, which addresses important social issues confronting the desi expat community. The customs and values that desis bring from home and the dynamics and dysfunctions of raising a family in the west. How old culture comes up against, and tries to work, or fumble through, the new social challenges and dilemmas of our time. Issues like drug use, drinking, arranged marriages, premarital sex, kids out of wedlock, single-motherhood, etc. Stuff that we, down here, are not too keen to acknowledge (all this happens over there), much less confront.

The subject matter of the movie necessitated the modest use of intimate situations shown here. In that, it’s no different than Bend It Like Beckham and Bhaji On The Beach. The act(s) of kissing here, involve open mouths and some serious and sustained tongue action. It’s not the pursed lips variety practiced by William Powell & Co. Here, one can fairly stipulate the swapping of spit. Yes, this will be shocking to some, but kissing is now slowly creeping into Bollywood movies and has become less of a taboo, today, than it used to be in the past.

Still, one cannot escape the fact that no Muslim/Pakistani/girl has broken this many taboos since Anita Ayub crossed the eastern border to bare herself in a string of little outfits. That, was her 15 minutes of fame.

Even the fashionably much maligned Meera got a boatload of bad press for her Bollywood movie Nazar with Ashmit Patel, which had her hugging a Hindu. Imagine if she had stuck out her tongue and cleaned his tonsils for him ?.

You will likely go through feelings of outrage, titillation and/or education. I don’t think Jay Kazim had any illusions while making this movie that this would not follow her back to Pakistan. As far as her acting is concerned, seeing how it was her first film outing, she should be proud of her performance. While not Oscar-worthy, it’s still better than most of the stuff that gets put out there these days.

So without much ado, here’s the video. It’s dubbed in German, so those of you who spreken de deutsch will enjoy it doubly. The rest of us will just have to follow the action.