Hyderabad, May 17 -- Mohammed Wajihuddin

Legendary director Raj Kapoor's Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985) was an important film. And its runaway success was not because of the two scenes which had the puritans jumping in their pyjamas. First, when the blue-eyed beautiful Mandakini bathes under a fountain in flimsy white sari and then when she breast-feeds a child. To the purveyors of purity, the sanskari custodians of our culture, these scenes promoted obscenity and exploitation of women. To the connoisseurs of aesthetics in cinema, they gave glimpses of pure art.

Fortunately, the message of the movie was not lost in the din of obscenity/art debate it raised. And the message was loud and clear: the ever-flowing, ancient Ganga which originate...