'Kiss' review: Varun Grover’s compact, powerful take on intimacy, censorship and cinema

At a time when most Hindi films are falling flat, leaving theatres empty and prompting movie chains to re-run older titles, a film arrives that reminds us of the power of cinema—loud and clear. This is Varun Grover's 'Kiss', which recently dropped on MUBI.

On the surface, the film revolves around the tussle between an artist and the censor board, each convinced that they know best about what can and can not be shown to a viewer. 

Actor Adarsh Gourav plays Sam, a filmmaker, and is quickly dubbed “Kurosawa ka najayaz aulaad (Kurosawa's illegitimate child)" by one of the censor board members. 

Shubhrajyoti Barat (Chahaun) and Swanand Kirkire (Salil) play the censor officials, each embodying two all-too-familiar archetypes: the former, with his shirt tightly tucked in, showcasing bureaucratic formality, and the latter, in loose-fitting garments, imbibing the familiar traditionalist suspicion.

The titular kiss is one between two men: two versions of the same man, in fact, but of different ages. 

While Sam is confident of what he puts on screen, the same kiss unsettles the other two. 

"Banate tum ho, jhelni humein padti hai (You make it, we have to suffer through it)", Salil tells Sam. One tells Sam to cut the scene short, and the other suggests wiping it off altogether. What follows is an absurdly bureaucratic process: timing the kiss.

But here's the catch: as they time the scene, each person's watch shows a different time—50 seconds, 2 minutes 25 seconds, 3 minutes 11 seconds. The actual length? 28 seconds.

After startling you, the film shifts gears, softens, and takes you into the minds and histories of its three characters, probing how the same scene can mean different things to each of them. What drives Sam to include the kiss? Why do the censor members recoil?

As you uncover the scars each character carries through this singular scene, you realise how film evokes different emotions in different individuals, and how deep the power of cinema is so as to pierce through a human's psyche, even serving as a tool for further introspection and catharsis. In 'Kiss', the audience is a character.

For me, the film makes a mark in another aspect. At a time when we're seeing a rise in hyper-masculine characters on screen, Grover lets his men just feel. He doesn’t cast them as strictly good or bad, but gently uncovers the motivations behind their thoughts and actions.

Back to the surface, it also introspects how censorship works—not by facts, but by the rigidities and reservations of those in charge. 

'Kiss' packs a lot in a mere 17 minutes, and this probe into intimacy, fragility, art, and censorship is as good in topic, as it is in treatment: Grover does an excellent job here.

Film: Kiss

Director: Varun Grover

Cast: Adarsh Gourav, Swanand Kirkire, Shubhrajyoti Barat

Rating: 4/5

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