But what couldn’t be shown on screen was made up for in song lyrics, in the poetic, creative ways in which lyricists cloaked ideas surrounding desire, lust and the body. Today, the sensual atmosphere this music created has all but disappeared as sex scenes in films become ordinary, boring and gratuitous, lacking the urgent yearning of the past. In tracks like ‘Zara Zara’ from Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein (2001) and ‘Jaadu Hai Nasha Hai’ from Jism (2003), lyricists Sameer Anjaan and Neelesh Misra capture the intense longing for a sexual experience. In ‘Jiya Jale’, also by Gulzar (and perhaps the horniest Bollywood song to ever exist), Preity Zinta impatiently anticipates her suhaag raat with Shah Rukh Khan, visualising the two of them dancing together in a river, dripping-wet and barely clothed.
Despite conservatives declaring that the present day forthrightness surrounding sexuality and lust comes from the West, it has been a part of Indian culture and art for centuries. The indigenous art form of lavani, which attained particular popularity during the Peshwa era in the 18th century, is known for its teasing lyrics and sensuous dance steps and has inspired recent suggestive tracks like ‘Apsara Aali’ (2010) and ‘Wajle ki Baara’ (2010). In North India, thumri songs—semi-classical romantic and devotional expressions—feature women’s stories full of unabashed eroticism. Gaari geet, satirical flirtatious and even abusive songs sung at North Indian weddings, also contain endless crude sexual implications. In one, there is a reference to a small penis and the fact that the bride will have to go elsewhere to fulfill her carnal desires. In another, a phallus is compared to sugarcane.
