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Less Is More

Shunya e Buke was recommended to me an "absolutely must see" an introduction to the "brave new world of Bengali cinema" which I have not kept up with. It may be a while before I get a chance to, but the story line has me hooked already. For a western audience it may be hard to fathom how the issue of the padded bra and the deception thereof could surface only after matrimony. Maybe if they turned the clock back several decades, it may even strike a chord.

We are treading here the slippery middle ground between the arranged marriage where it is quite impossible for the couple to check each other out and the "love marriage" where everything is possible by mutual consent. The couple in the story though marrying for love proceed about it like it were "arranged" - a stretch on the imagination in this day and age but not entirely implausible.

Nevertheless, the issue at hand is one of deception rendering the marriage insupportable. The fear of the miracle bra is real. Why men attach as much importance to the size of a woman's mammaries as they do can be analyzed to death and resolve nothing. The point of the movie is that a woman is much more than her body which is a laudable objective.

Yet the question of deception still remains - a couple decide to check each other out before marriage so there are no surprises and disappointments. She has expensive implants that feel natural to touch and he decides to pop a blue pill "just in case" even though he never had a problem.


That full disclosure before marriage these days necessitates a strip search seems to be a sorry state of affairs. Time was when marriage was about love and romance. When men desire women to have bodies of Playmates, they are forced to up the ante until they must become unstoppable, indefatigable Priapuses in bed. A race to reach artificial and often unrealistic levels of physical perfection works to the detriment of both sexes.

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Anonymous said…
The advertising world has a lot to blame for including generating insecurities about breast size for women and hair loss and the P size for men. In my opinion implants will never make up for the real thing.
10:19 PM
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