An added attraction

A swish car with giant wheels being washed by a knockout babe in her skimpiest, drenched by water gushing out of a hose pipe.
A lethal combo and an age-old male fantasy. While it���s originally and essentially a very Hollywood concept, it���s ���inspired��� several of our film-makers as well. Salaam Namaste director Sidharth Anand even got a dumb blonde to do the washing.But not everyone got it right, with most of these scenes looking tacky, unnecessary and far from sensual.
Director Raj Sippy���s Woh had a car wash scene picturised on Priyanshu Chatterjee and Laila. It���s the Cool Hand Luke scene, in which a hot blonde (Joy Harmon), bathed in lather cleans a car before the watchful eyes of a bunch of shirtless men looking mesmerised, that inspired him. ���I wanted a similar sensuous scene in Woh assisted by music. Camera angles make all the difference in such scenes,��� says Raj.
Several unheard-of Bollywood sleaze fests have relied on such scenes to pull in the crowd, but have lacked the mandatory finesse for a car wash scene. So, you have a desperate Dia Mirza trying all her moves as she washes a car that definitely doesn���t need one in a song in Koi Mere Dil Main Hai, leaving co-star Rakesh Bapat wide-eyed. Neha Dhupia also lost her inhibitions before Sonu Sood in the car wash scene in Sheesha. The film���s director Ashu Trikha says it had a tantalising effect. ���Initially, the song wasn���t part of Sheesha. I thought of shooting it with music as the character was deaf and dumb. But words made it more sensual,��� adds Ashu.
While the same can���t be said about Sonu, Anil Kapoor looked more at ease in Sun Suniyo from Musafir, chilling with a beer bottle, as Koena Mitra plays temptress washing a Merc whose number plate reads MH 06 W600. That���s director Sanjay Gupta���s car. Sanjay admits his reference was the scene featuring Liv Tyler in One Night at McCool���s. Even the colour of Koena���s dress is similar to the one Liv wore. ���I was more bothered about my Merc than Koena. She even asked me once, ���You mind asking how I���m doing?������ laughs Gupta, adding, ���The fine line between erotica and sleaze is razor sharp. If I had the villain instead of Anil in the scene or a young boy leching from the window, it could have turned bawdy.���
Contemporary soaps in the west like Desperate Housewives, One Tree Hill, Ally Mc Beal (Ally fantasises about a man washing a car) and Sunset Beach have given their own twist to this scene. The one in the latter appears effortlessly cute. It���s this ���cute��� effect that Kambakkht Ishq director Sabbir Khan hopes to achieve through the car wash scene in his film. ���There���s no song, it���s not seductive, but a cute moment in which Amrita Arora���s washing a Beetle early in the morning and Aftab Shivadasani, who plays her hubby, gets slightly turned on. Since the film���s very Hollywood and set there, I incorporated it,��� says Sabbir.