It was the first ‘adults only’ experience: B.R. Ishara’s Chetna (1970) brought sex out of the closet. Publicity posters flashed legs of Rehana Sultan in the role of a call girl And it clicked big-time. Chetna was sexually bold, narrating the story of a well-heeled young man who falls hopelessly in love with a booze-guzzling call girl.

That she meets with a tragic end was inevitable. An upper-class boy couldn’t live happily ever after with a woman who wasn’t a virgin, a big hang-up back in the early 1970s, which persists to this day and age. The iconoclastic Ishara — once a dishwasher and studio canteen tea boy — went on to attack hypocritical social mores in Zaroorat (1972) and Charitraheen (1973). One of his especially acerbic takes on sexual polemics, titled Society, was banned.
Immediately, Chetna had inspired spin-offs like Do Raha (1971) and Prabhat (1973), venturing into themes of adultery and inspecting the flesh trade. As suddenly as the explicit sex wave arrived, it ebbed. Ishara, who passed away at the age of 77 last month, had to shuffle into the shadows. The Chetna heroine who had married her director, stated that they weren’t cash-strapped. They didn’t have to depend on the kindness of strangers. Be that as it may, Ishara isn’t likely to receive his deserved importance in Bollywood history, as the trend-setter of permissive cinema.
In fact, there has been a regression. Take Laga Chunari Mein Daag (2007), which presented Rani Mukherjee much too glossily without conveying the character’s anguish or helplessness. Earlier, too, in Aaina (1974) Mumtaz was portrayed as a whingeing women who must resort to the ‘oldest profession in the world’ for the upkeep of their ungrateful family. How hackneyed is that?
Meanwhile, the genre of sex movies does show up sporadically nowadays, courtesy the Bhatt Bros. Mahesh Bhatt’s most remarkable achievement, though, has been Arth (1982), empathising with a housewife (Shabana Azmi) who ultimately tells her adulterous husband to take a walk. Significantly, the lacerating dialogue of Bhatt’s film was written none other than B.R. Ishara. Shabana Azmi abused ‘the other woman’ (Smita Patil) at a party, accusing her of ensnaring her husband with her expertise in the bed!
After Ishara, the second wave of sex films — Jism (2003), Paap (2003), Murder (2004) Rog (2005) and Jannat (2008) — have the Bhatt Brothers Mahesh and Mukesh, and Pooja Bhatt as a common factor. Emraan Hashmi came to be identified as a sex gizmo of sorts, what with elongated kisses becoming his calling card. To be fair, the Bhatt brand of movies are technically superior and can boast of catchy Sufi-laced music scores. Completed on financially-sound budgets, the mix of crime, lust and sex are a fail-safe formula. Jism, Murder and Jannat have inevitably spawned sequels.
These films are derivate of Hollywood and Korean originals, but then originality has always been at a low premium.
Anurag Kashyap’s Dev D (2009), a funky adaptation of Devdas, was a surprise: offering a graphic look at the interiors of a Delhi brothel. Today, Ekta Kapoor is the other vendor of sex-themed movies, an obvious and successful marketing tactic. From the strictly vegetarian saas-bahu TV serials, she switched to sex flicks. Ragini MMS (2011) was tacky but The Dirty Picture (2011) was not only excellently designed but incisively written, directed and acted. News is that Ekta Kapoor is planning a Ragini MMS 2 with the hottie of the season Sunny Leone.
Maybe it’s something to do with time but in my book Chetna will always be the one which dared to deal with sex the way it was, and will be.