Fire (1996)

Director:

Deepa Mehta

Writer:

Deepa Mehta (written by)

Release Date:

22 August 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Ashok (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) runs a family business that sells takeout food that also has a video rental store at the side...

Plot Keywords:

Lesbianism | Female Director | Marital Abuse | Adultery | Marital Crisis

Awards:

6 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Karishma Jhalani	...	Young Radha
Ramanjeet Kaur	...	Young Radha's mother
Dilip Mehta	...	Young Radha's father
Javed Jaffrey	...	Jatin (as Jaaved Jaaferi)
Nandita Das	...	Sita
Vinay Pathak	...	Guide at Taj Mahal
Kushal Rekhi	...	Biji
Shabana Azmi	...	Radha
Ranjit Chowdhry	...	Mundu
Kulbhushan Kharbanda	...	Ashok
Alice Poon	...	Julie
Ram Gopal Bajaj	...	Swamiji
Ravinder Happy	...	Oily man in video shop
Devyani Saltzman	...	Girl in video shop (as Devyani Mehta Saltzman)
Sunil Chabra	...	Milkman on bicycle (as Sunil Chhabra)

Runtime:

UK:108 min | USA:104 min

Country:

India | Canada

Language:

Hindi | English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo

Certification:

Canada:13+ (Quebec) | USA:PG-13 | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Malaysia:(Banned) | Iceland:L | Canada:PA (Manitoba) (original rating) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:14A (Manitoba) (re-rating) (2005) | France:U | Portugal:M/16 | Singapore:Unrated | South Korea:18 | Spain:13 | Sweden:Btl | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:Unrated | India:(Banned) | Germany:12

Filming Locations:

New Delhi, India

Company:

Kaleidoscope Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.

Trivia:

On its opening day in India, some movie theaters were attacked by Hindu fundamentalists, and the movie was eventually banned for religious insensitivity. The film was banned in Pakistan for the lesbian relationship that the movie plays around.

Quotes:

Sita: Isn't it amazing? We're so bound by customs and rituals. Somebody just has to press my button, this button marked Tradition, and I start responding like a trained monkey. Do I shock you?
Radha: Yes.
Sita: You're lovely.

Movie Connections:

References The Joy Suck Club (1994) (V)

Soundtrack:

Aa Jaa Zara Mere Dil Ke Sahare

Above-average screenplay

This is my first Deepa Mehta film. I saw the film on TV in its Hindi version with its "Sita" character presented as Nita. I also note that it is Radha who underwent the allegorical trial by fire in the film and not Nita/Sita. Yet what I loved about the film was its screenplay by Ms Mehta, not her direction. The characters, big and small, were well-developed and seemed quixotic towards the end--somewhat like the end of Mazursky's "An Unmarried Woman." They are brave women surrounded by cardboard men. And one cardboard man (Ashok) seems to come alive in the last shot we see of him---carrying his invalid mother Biji. He seems to finally take on a future responsibility beyond celibacy and adherance to religion.

Ms Mehta seems to fumble as a director (however, compared to most Indian mainstream cinema she would seem to be brilliant) as she cannot use her script to go beyond the microscopic joint family she is presenting except presenting a glimpse of the Chinese micro-minority in the social milieu of India. She even dedicates the film to her mother and daughter (not her father!) Yet her Radha reminesces of halcyon days with both her parents in a mustard field. Compare her to Mrinal Sen, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Muzaffar Ali and she is dwarfed by these giants--given her competent Canadian production team and financial resources! Mehta's film of two bisexual ladies in an Indian middle-class household may be sacrilege to some, but merely captures the atrophy of middle-class homes that does not seem to aspire for something better than its immediate survival in a limited social space. Kannada, Malayalam, and Bengali films have touched parallel themes in India but did not have the publicity that surrounded this film and therefore have not been seen by a wide segment of knowledgeable cinemagoers.

Ms Das, Ms Azmi, Mr Jafri and Mr Kharbanda are credible but not outstanding. Ms Azmi is a talented actress who gave superb performances under good directors (Mrinal Sen's "Khandar", Gautam Ghose's "Paar", Benegal's "Ankur") a brilliance notably absent in this film. Ms Das sparkled due to her screen presence rather than her acting capability. All in all, the film's strength remains in the structure of the screenplay which is above average in terms of international cinema. I am sure Ms Mehta can hone her writing talents in her future screenplays.