Sealed with a Kiss: Conjugality and Hindi Film Form

Examines the making of the sovereign couple in Hindi cinema. The essay reflects on the informal prohibition of on-screen kissing, tracking how kissing came to be supplanted by the song and dance duet. In reaction to social pressures, the nucleation of the couple is fantasized in modern Indian film. The very constituting of the couple as a romantic unit in isolation from society is a modern move, and the tension between the individual and the social is highlighted in romances that bloom across the lines of caste. Adapted from the source document.