Fire (1996)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Deepa Mehta

Writer:

Deepa Mehta (written by)

Release Date:

22 August 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Love | Desire | Video Store | Arranged Marriage | Racism

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) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:14A (Manitoba) (re-rating) (2005) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) (original rating) | Malaysia:(Banned) | Iceland:L | USA:PG-13 | India:A | 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, 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

Impressive!

I was so pleased to discover this movie. The box here in America makes it sound like it is soft core porn with descriptions such as "erotic heat" and the like.

But I was moved by the relationship of these two women and how it reflected their place in society. I was so impressed by how Shabana Azmi (Radha) showed her character growing as she began to understand what she really needed in her life.

Also, early in the film I began to worry that maybe it would just be a movie about how younger women influence traditional families by bringing in new ideas, but the first time Radha and Sita make love, Sita (Nandita Das) seems innocent and unsure about what has happened (even though she initiates it.) I realize that as a character she is going through her own development that starts with a woman who is unsure of expressing her opinion to one who can give voice to what she thinks.

Also, how the family is portrayed seems real in that people do not just immediately change when presented with new ideas. What I mean is that in American movies, we have the tendency to have all the main characters "work things out" by the end of the movie. So when Radha's husband finds Radha and Sita together he doesn't just say he was wrong to ignore Radha and make it up to her. He struggles and falls just like real people do.

This was great work. Radha and Sita have a true romance and the world they occupy is believable and impressive.

P.S. Also a reviewer before me described several parts of the movie and said negative things about it, but couldn't have been watching it too closely since the reviewer confuses the names of all the principle characters. It is Radha that catches on fire not Sita, and Radha who is the elder wife.

Also, I disagree with the characterization that the movie portrays men as the bad guys. I feel it shows very human people. Even the eldest female character Biji turns a blind eye to the pain and feelings of her caregiver Radha. People (men and women) are not perfect and the mistakes made by Radha and Sita's husbands are real things that men actually do and think their wives should just go along with because they are the wives. Does that make them bad men? No. But it does make it a bad system, which I believe is the real foe in this film.