Wet sari scenes are an on-screen

cliché A cliché ( or ) is an element of an artistic work, saying, or idea that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, even to the point of being weird or irritating, especially when at some earlier time it was consi ...

Hindi cinema Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

films, in which fully clothed actresses are depicted in wet

sari A sari (sometimes also saree or shari)The name of the garment in various regional languages include: * as, শাৰী, xārī, translit-std=ISO * bn, শাড়ি, śāṛi, translit-std=ISO * gu, સાડી, sāḍī, translit-std= ...

s that cling to their bodies. This functions as a proxy for

nudity Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. The loss of body hair was one of the physical characteristics that marked the biological evolution of modern humans from their hominin ancestors. Adaptations related to ...

in mainstream Indian cinema, where nudity is

taboo A taboo or tabu is a social group's ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, sacred, or allowed only for certain persons.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...

. According to Pooja Makhijani, in an interview with ''rediff.com'':

Bollywood is wonderfully escapist. And completely comforting, as nothing really changes. Every blockbuster has at least one of the following: a wet sari scene, an over-the-top dance number with hundreds of mustachioed extras, an overbearing patriarch, pehla pyar (first love), and a wonderfully choreographed fight sequence in which the police show up the second the bad guys are down and out.

Films showing wet sari scenes include '' Mera Naam Joker'' (1970), ''

Satyam Shivam Sundaram ''Satyam Shivam Sundaram'' () is a 1978 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film produced and directed by Raj Kapoor and written by Jainendra Jain, starring Shashi Kapoor and Zeenat Aman. The film's original soundtrack was composed by Laxmika ...

'' (1978), '' Ram Teri Ganga Maili'' (1985) and ''

Kishen Kanhaiya ''Kishen Kanhaiya'' is a 1990 Indian Hindi action comedy film directed by Rakesh Roshan, released in 1990. The film stars Anil Kapoor(in double role), Shilpa Shirodkar, Madhuri Dixit in lead roles. In this movie, Shilpa Shirodkar had a controv ...

'' (1990).

See also

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