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Nair does more than just embrace the ancient in her new film; she showcases the traditional culture of her native land -- the grandeur of its legends and their distinctive narrative traditions. Shot on location in India, the setting is the pivotal period of the 16th century, when rajahs and sultans hereditarily ruled independent domains as kingdoms and kept large numbers of women in their court as courtesans to feed any whim.

Kama Sutra brings these legends to life as it follows the fortunes of two young and beautiful women: Maya (Indira Varma) and Tara (Sarita Choudhury). Raised together as childhood friends and rivals, Tara is a princess and Maya is her servant. Each, in different ways, uses the teachings of Kama Sutra , the fourth century Indian treatise on love and sexuality, as a source of inspiration and enlightenment in a high-stakes romantic chess game.

Tara is impudent and egotistical while Maya, even at a young age, is confident and aware of her feminine powers. Maya's intense sensuality -- her sexual strength -- threatens her friend, who lashes out with her only weapon, her position in society, from which she can and does humiliate Maya in public. The rivalry beneath their affection for each other brews to a higher level, making their love/hate relationship acquire a twisting complexity.

On the eve of Tara's wedding to the great King Raj Singh (Naveen Andrews), Maya enacts sweet revenge on Tara by slipping into the royal tent and seducing the king (who had no qualms about being seduced). She captivates and mesmerizes Raj with her sexuality and directness, but her betrayal is witnessed by Tara's brother Biki -- the deformed hunchback prince whose advances Maya had always spurned.

Biki informs his family after the wedding takes place, causing Maya's banishment from the palace. On the royal wedding night, to the new queen's horror, Raj cries out the name of Maya as they consummate their union.

Maya, meanwhile, wanders the kingdom until she is found by Jai Kumar (Ramon Tikarum), a court sculptor taken by her beauty. Jai takes her to the home of Rasi Devi, once chief courtier in the court of Raj Singh's father who now teaches the lessons of the Kama Sutra .

Maya's relationship with Jai is almost as complex as her relationship with Tara. He sculpts her; they fall in love; he withdraws; she becomes disillusioned with love and devotes herself to learning the lessons of the Kama Sutra from the teacher, Rasa Devi, to be prepared for becoming a courtesan, or rather, the chief courtesan in the court of (who else) Raj Singh.

So the scene is set in motion for the four chief protagonists, Maya, Tara, Jai and Raj, setting off a vortex of passion that ensues in a mixture of obsession, sexual prowess, opium and decadence put together by a director who gives it to us all in the glorious saturated colors of the East -- red ochre sunsets, burnt sienna earth, deep burgundy and gold silks covering voluptuous bodies -- in what seems like a backdrop of sepia-like tones which climaxes with death and destruction.

There is no wondering why this film is being held up for release in India. There is a great deal of physical contact shown, and in India all direct physical contact in movies is censored. It is easy for one to say this film fell into the trappings of "must have sex within," but we are talking about Kama Sutra , the ancient Bible of love and sexuality. Could it have been made without it? I think not. However, I do not think this film is so much about lovemaking as it is about how sexual powers (masculine and feminine) are used for manipulative ends.

Nair's statements seems to be that sensuality is woven into her character's everyday life by their dress, their movements and their very existence in that time period, and that there was a greater awareness of love, the politics of love and how to prepare oneself for love on a spiritual plane. It is refreshing to see a film about a culture that is so far removed from ours in the U.S., and even more refreshing to see the handling of a woman's sexuality in a way that is not repressive or dismissive, but embraced and dealt with tactfully.

If you have not seen a foreign film in quite a while, now is the time. Go and see Kama Sutra for a peek into ancient culture, ancient social mores, ancient philosophy and the ancient way in which eroticism and sexuality were handled -- brave even by today's standards.

This item appeared in the Arts & Entertainment section of the March 14, 1997 issue.