Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Marriage, Sex and Bollywood

Continuing our non-scientific survey of the priorities of the population of Kerala based on billboards, Romance and its trappings come a close second to Gold.







It seems that Harmony.com has plenty of competition - but then some of these websites undertake the full services of a traditional matchmaker; investigating the family background of the parties and their financial status.

Weddings are a huge business, with parties lasting days.  While dowries are officially illegal, they are absolutely the norm.  One of our drivers had the (mis)fortune of having four daughters.  He had successfully married-off the two elder ones.  When asked, he said their dowries had been a real problem consisting of washing machine, refrigerator and lots of gold and silver jewelry.

We saw two weddings at Catholic churches which still had their Christmas decorations in place.
Wedding in Kochi

Wedding in Munnar

Bollywood is now the world's biggest movie-making area, far exceeding Hollywood in its volume.

Bollywood Movie Ads

As almost all Bollywood movies have a romantic angle, it is not surprising to see that there is a substantial use of Bollywood celebrities endorsing products and services in the wedding industry.



This firm claims to be able to fit 150 bridal dresses at one time in its store!


Even the King of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan, whose image is everywhere, is playing a prominent role in the wedding advertisements.

Our billboard survey also showed than sexual performance is considered important both by conventional practitioners...

...and less conventional providers:

WILD VIAGRA!!






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