"Fire"
A Film Review by
Linda Lopez McAlister
on "The Women's Show"
WMNF-FM 88.5, Tampa, FL

 It's a joy to be getting the opportunity to review the women's
films that are planned for the upcoming Tampa International Gay and
Lesbian Film Festival this year.   The one I'm going to talk about
today, Fire, written and directed by Deepa Mehta,  is already two years
old but it has never made it to Tampa before.  I've been asked a number
of times if I've seen it, and now I'm happy to say I have.  This is an
extremely beautiful and well made story of two Indian wives living in an
extended family situation in New Delhi.   It is, however, a Canadian
film and has won numerous international film festival awards.

 The story of the film unfolds at a slow and leisurely pace,
allowing the audience members to gradually get their bearings about the
situation and who is who in this household, as well as which adult is
the small girl who appears in a field of flowers with her mother and
father in the film's opening moments.   Eventually we realize that the
girl grew up to be Radha (Shabana Azmi) a married woman who lives with
her older husband   Ashok (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) and her infirm, elderly
mother, Biji; Radha runs the household above the family business on the
street level which consists of a combination video store and restaurant
and does the cooking for the restaurant.  Also in the household is Jatin
(Jaaved Jaaffery) who is Ashok's son and his new bride Sita (Nandita
Das).  An employee Mundu (Ranjit Chowdhry) rounds out the household.

 After the prologue, the first thing we learn about this family
is that Jatin and Sita have gone to the romantic Taj Mahal for their
honeymoon, but Jatin has absolutely no interest, romantically or
otherwise, in his beautiful young wife.  She is naturally bewildered by
his indifference to her.  It turns out that the woman he really loves
wouldn't marry him and he married Sita just because his family was
pressuring him so hard to get married and have children, but he keeps up
his passionate relationship with his Chinese girlfriend anyway.

 Radha's marriage is not much better.  Since they discovered that
she cannot have children, her husband, who is deeply involved in various
religious activities, took a vow of chastity, so both have been celibate
for thirteen years.  She is a kind and compassionate woman and comforts
Sita in her predicament of being in her husband's home in a loveless
marriage.  Very gradually, as the women become friends and confidantes,
they both discover an erotic desire for one another and become lovers.
Now, instead of ruing the fact that their husbands are seldom home,
they're quite happy to see them go.  Alas Mundu is always around and,
after Radha finds him in a compromising situation, he plots his revenge
and eventually spills the beans to Ashok.

 The cinematography by Giles Nuttgens is gorgeous.  The slow pace
of the film allows us time to get to know these people and the
atmosphere in which they live, with the rigidity and stifflingness of
the family situation mirrored in the somewhat claustrophobic atmosphere
of the rather small apartment in which they all live.   It's no wonder
that Sita and Radha's closeness begins and flourishes on the roof where
they can get fresh air.

 There is a rather shocking conclusion to the film and you will
not know how it ends until the very last sequence.  This is a rich and
rewarding film that, in addition to the love story, touches on many
other aspects of contemporary Indian life, the role of tradition in a
changing society, and the struggles of women to take control of their
own lives when they live in a society that traditionally doesn't allow
them that role.

 "Fire" is definitely a film to see at the festival.   One
suggestion: sit down front at the Tampa Theater, not under the balcony.
The Indian accents are sometimes difficult to understand and further
back the acoustics at the Tampa Theater are none too good, so give
yourself your best opportunity to understand the dialogue of this
beautiful and passionate film.

For the "Women's Show" this is Linda Lopez McAlister on Women and Film

Copyright 1998 by Linda Lopez McAlister
mcalister@chuma1.cas.usf.edu