The Rocky S red outfit was the perfect complement to her skin tone in some poses. In others, it looked odd, even crude and uber-bling, with the waist chain adding to the clutter. And bling is the last thing you want to associate with yoga.

Abroad, where yoga photo shoots and videos are becoming classier by the day the less-is-more look is de rigueur. The toned body in itself becomes sensuous. It does not need accoutrements to suggest it.

On the stomach poses, one is distracted completely by the excessive show of bust. Perhaps a change of costume in certain poses, especially the sitting twists and standing ones, would also have kept us focused on yoga. Which brings us back to the original statement: Is this DVD really a showcase for Shilpa or Shilpa's yoga?

Adding to the visual loudness of all this, is the boat-house that keeps serenading the actress in the backdrop in the stomach-poses set. In the standing poses too, the column behind Shetty occasionally looks ridiculous, especially in the squat pose where the column hangs behind, almost like a third lower limb! At her head, too, this column curls around like a pair of exotic horns: perhaps intended to frame her face, but maddeningly distracting.

Otherwise, Kerala's many moods (courtesy CGH Hearth, Kerala) in the backdrop give a nice flourish: emerald greenery, the different moods of blues of the water, Kalaripayattu martial artists sweeping in their dance-like movements behind the actress. But such choices always involve some tight-rope walking between execution and editing: in a yoga video all these can also be extremely distracting. Do you watch or do you hear? And what about the poor viewer who wants to do the poses alongside: does he or she gawk or go along with the flow of the poses?

Also see: Yogic therapy for diabetes

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