Fire

Deepa Mehta is best known for her extraordinary trilogy: Fire (1996), Earth (1998), and Water (2005). Set in contemporary Delhi, India, the first film in the series, Fire, ignited a controversy upon its 1988 release with its frank depiction of loveless, arranged marriages and lesbian sexuality. Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das star as unhappily married sisters-in-law, Radha and Sita, living together under the same roof with their husbands. In fact, the entire extended family lives above a sundries and video store run by Radha's husband. Radha is unable to conceive. ("Sorry, no eggs in ovary," the doctor explains to her.) Sita is neglected by her husband, Jatin (Javed Jaffrey), who is in love with Julie, a Chinese-Indian. When the two unfulfilled women turn to each other for emotional support, they soon become find themselves engulfed in the flames of passionate desire for each other. Radha's husband, Ashok (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), eventually discovers Radha and Sita in bed together, a discovery that confuses him and threatens to tear the family apart. <br /> <br />Fire is compelling on many levels. On one level, it may be experienced as a touching love story between two women. On another level, the film offers a scathing critique on oppresive Indian social system and its customs of arranged marriages, religious hypocrisy, sexism, and valuing women only as breeding chattel. The film also offers a lesson in what happens when basic human desires are ignored: Radha and Sita are seemingly transformed from heterosexual women into lesbian lovers. Highly recommended. <br /> <br />G. Merritt

Two women in undesirable arranged marriages in India begin to desire each other. While male sexually in all its forms are overlooked if not approved of, the women endure more disapproval and social stigma. Interesting take on lesbianism in a culture in which there is no such word for it or concept in the culture. Part of a trilogy with Earth and Water. Earth I haven't seen. Water won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and is about a child bride who is cast off as a widow by age 8. I highly recommend Deepa Mehta's films. They are not Bollywood.

This was a fabulous movie! It goes to show you that there are all kinds of people around you that you don't even know! It was a very sad movie however, a real tear jerker! <br /> <br />I was really moved by the actresses in the movie, they really played the parts extremely well!