Movie: Fire (1997)
Starring: Karishma Jhalani, Ramanjeet Kaur, Nandita Das
Director: Deepa Mehta
*Released As A Private Album*

Deepa Mehta's engaging film FIRE is by Western standards a very tame story about the love of two Indian Hindu women, the sisters-in-law Radha and Sita. Both are in loveless male-dominated arranged marriages with two insensitive men. They are part of an Indian extended family that includes an elderly matriarch who cannot speak because of a stroke but lets her wishes be made known often and loudly with the assistance of a hand bell. A servant, kinky enough to be a character of a Carson McCullers novel, completes this dysfunctional family.

The fire within the movie is nothing compared to the storm that erupted when the movie opened in Bombay. Middle-class men and enough women to bring shame to their species caused a riot, breaking glass, tearing down the advertisements for the film, etc. Not only do the two women in the film love each other, but they kiss, they have the fortitude to say no to boorish husbands, and their ultimate sin is that they are Hindu.