Way back in 1933, Devika Rani shocked people with her lingering kiss with Himanshu Rai in Karma. This episode remained isolated for several decades, as India's censors didn't allow filmmakers to go beyond a peck on the cheek or two flowers touching petals when a kiss had to be shown.

In the swinging '60s, Shammi Kapoor could get away with suggestively singing Kiss, kisko pyar karoon, but it took another 40 years for Mallika Sherawat to do Kiss Kiss Ki Kismat and put her tongue where the hero's mouth was.

In the repressed '70s, Raj Kapoor made Shashi Kapoor squirm through a kiss with Zeenat Aman in Satyam Shivam Sundaram. The formula was repeated with Rajiv Kapoor and Mandakini in Ram Teri Ganga Maili.

For all practical purposes, the kiss remained taboo in Hindi films. Until the '90s, when Dharmesh Darshan made Aamir Khan smooch Karisma Kapoor in Raja Hindustani.

There's a smooch in Darshan's latest offering Bewafaa too, though the on-screen kiss has lost its sting thanks to Ms Sherawat.

In Julie, Neha Dhupia too got boldly beautiful with co-stars Yash Tonk and Sanjay Kapoor. In Sheesha, Dhupia goes all out with Sonu Sood again. "We assumed the censors would pull out the steamiest smooches. They pulled out all the stops instead," laughs Dhupia.

But Kissing onscreen is no laughing matter for 'Tauba Tauba' star Payal Rohatgi, who is out to break Mallika's record of 17 smooches in her upcoming film Laila — A Mystery. The press release of the film boasts of nothing less than record breaking 32 smoochess.

While Producer Vivky G. insists that the kisses are not forced but demanded by the storyline, and that they've been filmed very ‘aesthetically', writer Sunil Kumar claims that what is shown is already happening in our society.

The one film to have reversed the raunchy element in the celluloid kiss is Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Black.

The kiss in this film, between the sexually frustrated, deaf-and-blind Michelle (Rani Mukherji) and her aging teacher Debraj (Amitabh Bachchan), denudes the act of all eroticism.

Says Rani Mukherji, "The whole sequence is so poignant. Michelle's lack of sexual love and the certainty that she would never know the pleasure of being loved by a man makes her plea for a kiss a moment of heightened tragedy. I'm happy the audience has perceived the kiss for what it is."

Indeed, Black has brought back the touch of enigma and subtlety to the kiss.

No longer does the heroine have to look as startled as Dimple Kapadia in Sagar, when Rishi Kapoor planted a loud smack on her lips.

Later, she did a lip lock with Sunny Deol in Gunah but looked extremely unhappy in what was supposed to be an expression of love.

"That's because our films have made it look forced. Besides, most of our actors and actresses really don't know how to kiss," says a young filmmaker, tongue firmly in cheek.