And ironically, Sunila assumes the gait and posture associated with our female goddesses personifying Shakti. Sunila wields a dagger and arches her body along with the bow, in a posture drawn from Hindu iconography. Mohan then takes you to the idol makers of Calcutta sculpting Durga images. The sculptor says that the new demand is to tone down traditional features of the Durga image and incorporate a more seductive, dancerly body with the hip jutting out. He remarks that these new images do not evoke the instinctive feeling of reverence that the traditional icon created so powerfully down the years.
All iconography reflects the collective taste of the age even as it caters to newly created needs.
Inevitably, Mohan takes us to the film poster painters of Chennai who talk unselfconsciously of painting the female figures in soft, fluorescent tones to make the image more tasty. Tasty is the word used repeatedly alongside Tamil. The image makers are equating a woman's body as something to be seductively exhibited, relished and consumed by a mass male audience. The heroes are painted in darker colours and bolder strokes to conjure up the all-important machismo. Apparently, our film poster painters are safely immune to the new findings of Western social scientists.