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Review

Director Nair delves into the pleasures of the flesh with this semi-erotic tale of lust and forbidden love set in precolonial India. But despite a cast that is undeniably pleasing to look at, the film does little to arouse real passion. Newcomer Varma is luminously ravishing as Maya, a young servant girl who finally decides that she is tired of the leftovers tossed to her by her erstwhile childhood friend, the Princess Tara (Choudhury). Maya steals into the chambers of Tara's groom-to-be and seduces him the day before the wedding and, upon being discovered, receives a one-way ticket to exile. She eventually finds her niche as a student of the famous courtesan Rasa Devi and falls in love with the local king's prized sculptor. Sumptuously photographed, awash with exotic olive-tinted flesh, and presented with excellent period detail, Kama Sutra would seem to have all the ingredients for a gripping erotic drama, but Nair, who gives attention to character and has a fine directorial sense, can't elevate this story above the realm of half-baked melodrama.