Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985)
Contents |
Crew
Director Raj Kapoor
Writer: Raj Kapoor
Producer: Randhir Kapoor
Music : Ravindra Jain
Cinematography: Radhu Karmakar
Cast
Mandakini
Rajiv Kapoor
Divya Rana
Saeed Jaffrey
Kulbhushan Kharbanda
Raza Murad
Tom Alter
Highmindedness
Much of the film revolves around the Ganges, temples (even as it disapproves of much of the religious establishment). From the title of the film to its entire imagery, almost everything is suffused in religion. The nudity is thus bittercoated with religion and other zamindari (feudal) values, which the script does not support either.
Excuses for nudity
Heroine Ganga, like every decent human, needs to bathe. She does so under a waterfall with a thin cotton cloth around her. And after she is done with bathing she happily talks to hero Sahay in that state. He obviously does not have good eyesight because he does not seem to notice the goodies that poke their way through her wet cotton cloth. And she has no problem or moral issues or shame in talking to him in that condition.
Then Ganga and Sahay have a baby, and babies need to be fed. Twice in the film Ganga feeds her baby, the first time before a woman (with a man sneakily looking on). The next time it is with male lechers (including her father in law, who does not know who she is) looking on. She is so irritated by the male lechers that she pulls the baby's mouth off so that, well, obviously we know why she does that. In any case history was created in Indian cinema, this being the first film (other than Gupt Gyan's diseased tits) in which the female breast, and then the nipple was seen. On the giant Cinemascope it was far clearer than in the photograph shown on the page Adult content in Hindi-Urdu cinema.
Makes you wonder how mothers fed their babies before Ram Teri Ganga Maili? maybe they used bottles and baby formula.