Despite its come-on title, Mira Nair's film is a serious study of sexual politics -- not that there isn't a more than a little sex in it, though. The film marked Nair's return to her native India after the mixed successes of her two Hollywood features, Mississippi Masala and The Perez Family. Indira Varma's Maya is a resourceful woman who understands that her options in life are limited by both her social station as a servant belonging to a lower caste and by her gender. Since there is nothing she can do about the former condition, she uses her powers as a woman schooled and skilled in the art of lovemaking to gain respect. Nair makes Maya totally sympathetic by contrasting her with her childhood friend Tara, for whom life has been far too easy, simply because she was born into royalty. Sex becomes a tool for Maya, and though the film's scenes of lovemaking are generally erotic, we're also aware that Maya is thinking beyond the pleasure principle to what it can gain her.