Sex becomes a tool for power and a weapon of revenge in Kama Sutra, the erotically charged new film from acclaimed director Mira Nair (Salaam Bombay! Mississippi Masala). Two young women engage in an emotional chess game with artists and royalty as they strive to outdo each other in the arts of sensuality. Tara (Sarita Choudhury) is a princess in 16th-century India, accustomed to fine silk and courtly ways. While she learns the etiquette of the Kama Sutra, the Indian book of love, from the famed teacher Rasa Devi, her servant Maya (Indira Varma) must be content with whatever Tara casts aside. Maya is presented with a chance for vengeance on the eve of Tara’s wedding to the great king Raj Singh (Naveen Andrews).
Nair’s films have always dwelt on those living on the fringes of society and in Kama Sutra she spins an often steamy fable of one such person who uses the sectrets of love to gain standing in the world. Visually, this is a stunningly beautiful film, for which much of the credit must go to Nair’s Irish lighting cameraman Declan Quinn.