- Title: UNITED KINGDOM: DIRECTOR DEEPA MEHTA SPEAKS ABOUT HER NEW FILM 'FIRE'
- Date: 19th November 1996
- Summary: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (NOVEMBER 19, 1996) (RTV - AVAILABLE ALL) (SOUNDBITE ENGLISH) DIRECTOR SAYING SITA IS A CONTEMPORARY YOUNG INDIAN WOMAN WHO ACTUALLY FIGHTS IT AND TWENTY YEARS AGO SOMEBODY IN SITA'S POSITION MIGHT HAVE MADE ADJUSTMENTS, BUT SITA WILL NOT (SOUNDBITE ENGLISH) ACTOR SAYING RADHA IS VERY DUTIFUL TOWARDS HER HUSBAND AND HER MOTHER IN LAW, BUT BEYON
- Embargoed: 4th December 1996 12:00
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- Location: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
- Country: United Kingdom
- Reuters ID: LVA1UEKYOYA5PV75CXC00LMF512I
- Story Text: Indian director Deepa Mehta showed her controversial new film "Fire" at the London Film Festival on Wednesday (November 20).
Starring one of India's most famous actors, Shabana Azmi, "Fire" tells the story of a New Delhi middle-class family which is torn by the conflict between traditional ways and the forces of change.
Azmi plays Radha, who works in a take-out restaurant owned by her husband Ashok (Kulbushan Kharbanda). Their marriage is under strain because Radha has been unable to conceive after fifteen years of wedlock. Ashok has taken refuge in religion, and becomes a follower of a spiritual leader who preaches total abstinence from sex.
Ashok's brother Jatin (Jaaved Jaaferi), who runs the family video store, has an arranged marriage with a young woman, Sita (Nandita Das), but remains obsessed with his Chinese mistress.
Sita questions the old ways of family life, and her modern outlook has a profound influence on Radha, who starts to question every notion she has ever had about her place in the world. The two become close friends, and the friendship develops into a lesbian relationship.
Alien sexuality intrudes into family life also in video form.
The servant Mundu (Ranjit Chowdhry) takes pleasure in shocking the family matriarch Biji (played by elderly newcomer Kushal Rekhi) by playing sex videos borrowed from under the counter at Jatin's video store. Biji, paralysed by a stroke, is helpless and has no choice but to watch.
The family's story is a metaphor for the major transitions taking place across the entire subcontinent of India. The women in the family reflect the changes in the role of women in Indian society, whilst family ties are becoming weaker. The male characters show the erosion of the male figure as the source of power. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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