click for new

click here for current front page

Festivale Spring 1997

Fire If you have not seen a true Bollywood film (this Fire isn’t), then you have missed a treat. Bollywood (Bombay Hollywood) is a strictly glossy genre of Indian films with extraordinarily extravagant musical production numbers that leave you wondering if an MTV music clip has been cut into the film. IT’s not cinema verite. Fire, on the other hand, endeavours to show Indian people in Indian society. It is a film about vision — about learning to see what is beyond the limit of your eyes — and beyond the limit of the life prescribed for you.

Two women are married to two brothers, and they all work in the family store. The women also work in the family home, which includes caring for the stroke-stricken matriarch (Kushal Rekhi). They are sexual objects, discarded. The older brother has embraced a guru and uses his wife as a test of his celibacy, asking her to lie beside him, untouched. Her young sister-in-law is married to a reluctant bridegroom in love with an ambitious Chinese woman. He too ignores his wife, keeping her for possible future use as a baby maker. What possibilities are open to these people?

Writer/Director Deepa Mehta uses the legend of Sita and Ram to show how difficult it is to win. Ram accuses Sita of being unfaithful to him. He demands that she be burnt to prove her love and faithfulness. She survives the fire, proving her good behaviour, only to be exiled, because she is a distraction from other, more important, things. This film is a widow into a different way of life. The two brothers have different bedrooms, one modern, one traditional. Their shop is part traditional food, part video store. The wives are likewise traditional and daring.

Search for: UK's largest videos store Search For:

The women in their saris and household servitude are unfilled, trapped by the choices of their menfolk, until another solution occurs to them. In the final scenes of the film, when a woman screams in her burning sari, her husband acknowledges her as a possession, not a person, by walking away. What use is an object that refuses to be an object? Fire is beautifully visualised and realised. The actors give reality and conviction to their parts. This is a tale of life, with it’s high and low comedy as well as drama, which keeps it from being too worthy to be entertaining. It’s not bubble-gum cinema, like Bollywood or Hollywood mainstream films, but a look at real people and real places. Reader Review: Ali Kayn wrote: "What use is an object that refuses to be an object?" and this reminded me of my reading of the French feminists Luce Irigaray and Helene Cixous, who both spoke of the way in which commerce between women (both monetary and sexual) was forbidden in so many societies precisely because it represented two "objects" interacting - without the permission or profit of their owners. The film FIRE brought out those ideas again for me, and the way that the two women's husbands used them as stepping stones for their own spiritual, familial or financial betterment was shown up in stark relief. Then it looked at the way that women's rebellion is codified in so many societies as unlawful/sacrilegious behaviour! The best thing, for me, though, was the discussion we had afterward with the Indian couples who were in the theatre. They loved the constant references to mythology that I misunderstood, didn't get, or didn't see, as well as talking about how the position of women in their community is changing and the way that the rise of the film star, particularly the lead roles in this film, is bringing women to prominence in their society. We should also mention here that India makes about a hundred times as many films as Hollywood. But how many are released to English-speaking countries? (How many are we open to receive?) - Sarah Endacott

	Definitely worth a look. Ali Kayn
Like us on facebook

Enter movie, TV show, or person   Provided by Internet Movie Database.	Just the Facts: Title: Fire (1996) Written by: Deepa Mehta Directed by: Deepa Mehta Produced by: Bobby Bedi; Varsha Bedi; Suresh Bhalla; Karen Lee Hall; David Hamilton (IV); Anne Masson; Deepa Mehta Edited by Barry Farrell Director of Photography: Giles Nuttgens
	The Players: Kushal Rekhi; Shabana Azmi; Ranjit Chowdhry; Nandita Das; Jaaved Jaaffery.

Like us on facebook

Movie images, sounds, and video clips are solely owned by their respective companies. No other uses are permitted without the prior written consent of owner. Use of the material in violation of the foregoing may result in civil and/or criminal penalties. disclaimer Festivale Online Magazine Celebrate everything! www.festivale.info ISSN 1328-8008 Published in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia disclaimers | contact the editor | Festivale revision history Published in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia copyright © Festivale 2009 All rights reserved Filed: Nov-1997 Last tested: 3-Jul-2014 Last Compiled: 3-Jul-2014 Entire site refreshed: Dec 2008-Feb 2009 | Site URL transferred: Jan 2005 (previously www.festivale.webcentral.com.au)