Maya is a servant to Princess Tara in 16th century India. They've known each other since childhood and have grown up as friends (or so we're led to believe). As a young woman Tara watches enviously as Maya is given lessons in Kama Sutra (an ancient 4th century guide on how to make love) by a famed courtesan Rasa Devi. Tara is allowed to observe during these classes. Maya secretly envies the life of Tara, she hates being given Tara's hand me down clothes and constantly complains to her aunt about her life as a servant. The girls grown up and Tara is to be married to Raj Singh, a neighbouring king. Unfortunately for Tara, Maya learnt a bit too much during her Kama Sutra lessons and ends up deliberately seducing Tara's opium addicted husband on the eve of her wedding! This is brought about because Raj Singh looks at Maya with lust at his first meeting with his wife to be and she is so jealous she spits at Tara and tells her to leave the pre-wedding ceremony. Tara has a brother, Prince Vicky, a hunchback who is openly ridiculed by many, who has been in love with Maya since childhood. Vicky sees Maya seducing and bedding the king and is distressed and furious! On the wedding day as Tara is leaving the palace to go to her new palace Maya whispers to her "All my life I have lived with your used things but now something I have used is yours forever." Tara doesn't quite understand this and at the same time Vicky tells his mother that he wants to marry Maya and she must arrange it for him. Maya is approached with this proposal and refuses, and an enraged Vicky tells his mother of Maya's betrayal with his sister's husband on the eve of the wedding. The queen throws Maya out of the palace banishing her from the kingdom. Maya roams the land alone and lost. Tara rejects her husband's sexual advances as she has heard how painful sex is supposed to be the first time and he calls her "Maya". So the king leaves her bed and takes more and more opium and more and more mistresses and no one is happy. On her travels Maya meets Jai Kumar, the king's sculptor, who falls for her seductive charms and she becomes his most favoured model and lover. Maya falls in love with Jai and for the first time in her life she feels out of control. In the meantime the king is still obsessed with Maya, pretty much ignores his wife and continues to bed other women when he's not searching high and low around the kingdom for Maya.

What happens when the king catches up with Maya? What is the king's relationship with Jai Kumar? Do Tara or Maya ever achieve happiness in their lives? Just how vindictive can people be in the name of love and lust and revenge? I would rate this 7 out of 10. It's a very sensuous and beautifully filmed piece of work with excellent acting (whether or not you like the characters). For those who like romance, with historical drama and jealousy and spite all rolled into one, this is worth watching. Also if you like soft-core sex you might want to check it out too! To summarise the story I'd say it was predominantly about a poor girl trying to get revenge over a rich girl after years of being made to feel inferior even though they are brought up as best friends and by seducing the latter's husband on her wedding night she extracts the best revenge she possibly can, although ultimately this leads to tragedy.

I watched ''Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love'' 3 years ago, and it was the first Indian movie I watched in my life. Needless to say that I fell in love right away, but only now I can make a review about it. I found both actresses Indira Varma and Sarita Choudhury very beautiful(specially Indira) and after this film, I had more interest in watching Indian movies.

In the 16th Century India, Maya and Tara are friends,but they belong to different casts: Maya is a servant and Tara is a princess. The only reason why Maya can play with Tara, is because Maya's adoptive mother nursed both Tara and her brother Biki. But the time passes, and soon Tara becomes jealous of Maya's beauty, specially when she is going to marry a king and he prefers to look Maya than Tara. They split their friendship,and Maya as a revenge sleeps with the king Raj Singh. Bikki,who always was in love with her, asks her to marry him, but when she answers no, She is banned from the places she lives, going to find help with Rasa Devi, the teacher of the Kama Sutra who teaches all women to become courtesans. She lives there and learns the art of Kama Sutra. When she is ready, she goes to be Raj Singh's courtesan, and Tara gets very angry with her, as Jai Kumar, a man she once loved, but not cared about her very much when they were lovers.

I do confess that I have read the Kama Sutra and there's an awful lot of misconceptions about it . It is NOT some hot porn manual that will get your juices flowing , it's a very thick book about the art of love . If you've bought a copy simply to use as masturbation fuel then you've certainly wasted your money . Likewise if you bought the book to wave around during some moral crusade with a rather dubious agenda

The film is very similar to the book . Many people who have stated their opinion have obviously watched the movie either expecting to be shocked or to be brought to orgasmic ecstasy but that's their problem because like the book with the same name this film while being somewhat erotic is also rather dull . It's not an adaptation per se just a rather unconnected and tenuous example of a book and movie sharing the same name . The only reason it's called KAMA SUTRA is down to the fact that it's taught to a group of courtesans , the rest of the plot involves something of a love triangle . It's also a movie that's not well made with a visual look of something that appears to have been shot on very poor stock film

I will praise it on one aspect - The casting . For this type of movie to come close to any type of success the casting of the lead female must be right and Indira Varma as Maya simply steals the film . He is strikingly beautiful but he also oozes a type of pure innocence . It's very easy to see why Raj Singh has fallen in love with her . Singh is played by Naveen Andrews who everyone in the world will now know via a very successful American show but you'll never be reminded of Sayid Jarrah while watching this because Andrews is very convincing . I do feel slight sympathy for Sarita Choudhrey as the other pivotal female role of Tara because her part feels rather underwritten and understandably she doesn't have the same type of breathtaking beauty as Varma unfortunately

This could have been a very poor film and to be honest it's not a great one either , but some clever casting and fine acting make it worth watching at least once