Deepa Mehta, a prominent film director has not only become the voice of new
Her brilliant depiction of rural
The movie received most of its recognition due to the controversies it stirred amongst the Hindu fundamentalists who were successful in banning the movie from the theaters altogether. The movie was first passed uncut by the
The 1999 edition of the Human Rights Watch World Report notes: "In December 1998, the award-winning film Fire, by director Deepa Mehta, was recalled from theatres after Shiv Sena (Hindu fundamentalist group) activists vandalized at least fifteen cinemas where it was playing.” However, the more interesting part to note is that the Shiv Sena said there would have been no objection to the lesbian relationship if the women were Muslim. To put this in a more western perspective, one could draw parallels with Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain (2005), drawing controversy not so much because it featured a homosexual relationship, but rather because the homosexuals were cowboys, a fact which destabilized some cultural codes which, up until that point, would not have been the subject that kind of "attack" in the mainstream.
Soon, after much convincing, the Supreme Court allowed the movie to be re-released uncut in India which became a and it enjoyed a significant amount of acclaim both at home and overseas by whisking away awards such as the ‘Audience Award’ for its outstanding narrative feature in the L.A. Outfest and International Independent Award in the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film festival.
No comments:
Post a Comment