Deepa Mehta's _Fire_

[Birgit Kellner]

Michael Rabe wrote:
>
> A final point for this round:  the older wife, played by the unfairly
> maligned Shabana Azmi,  is named Radha [not Parvati] and the name is not
> idly choosen.  And so I close with this query:  can anyone clarify the role
> played by a Radha in the famous Bollywood film of the mid 60s, _Sangam_?
> There's an ingenious allusion to that film in _Fire_ that I wasn't able to
> fully grasp, having only seen the former once [in Varanasi in '67!] and
> remembering NOTHING about it except that refrain, _Bol Radhe Bol Radha,
> Sangam ho na hin_ or something like that.
>
> Please.  Anybody...I really want to know!
> And trust others on this list won't mind learning either,

"Sangam", aka "The Confluence", 1964, 238 min, colour, Hindi, directed
by Raj Kapoor. The film was a huge box-office success not only in South
Asia, but also in the Middle East and Russia.

Here's the pertinent entry in Ashish Rajadhyaksha's/Paul Willemen's
"Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema" (Delhi/OUP 1994), p.355f.:

"Kapoor's first colour film is presented as a glossy love triangle but
can equally well be seen, along with many Indian triangles, as a romance
between two men interrupted by a woman. Sunder (Kapoor) is from a lower
class than his childhood friends Gopal (Kumar) and Radha
(Vyjayanthimala). Although both men, bosom pals, are in love with Radha,
Sunder ignores the fact that he and Gopal share the same object of
desire. When Sunder finally wins and marries Radha by joining the air
force and becoming a national hero, Gopal puts male bonding and his
passion for his friend above his attachment to Radha and withdraws.
However, Sunder is obsessed by thoughts of Radha's possible infidelity.
In the end, Gopal reassures Sunder of Radha's fidelity and then commits
suicide.
The film includes a plea by Radha for fairer treatment of women but the
logic of the story demonstrates that the most valuable relationship a
man can have is with another man. Mahesh Bhatt (1993) commented that the
hit song _Bol radha bol, sangam ho ga ke nahin_, sung by Mukesh,
'triggers off memories of a beautiful woman in a picturesque setting
dressed in a swimsuit (while) Raj Kapoor, clad in shorts, hangs from a
tree with a bagpipe under one arm and begs his beloved Radha for an
orgasmic release'. Another hit was _Ye mera prem patra_, sung by Rafi.
One of the early films to use locations in Europe as exotic backdrops as
Sunder and Radha honeymoon in snowy Switzerland and 'decadent' Paris,
where, to the song _Main kya karoon ram mujhe buddha mil gaya_, Radha
behaves like a prostitute to taunt her husband's virility."

A brief characterization of "Sangam" on its background in Indian film
history can also be found in Sumitra S. Chakravarty, "National Identity
in Indian popular Cinema 1947-1987" (1993, Univ. of Texas Press),
pp.216-218. Chakravarty describes Sangam as extolling "male camaraderie
and sacrifice at the expense of a ruthlessly exploitative male-female
relationship wherein the woman's purpose is to gratify the hero's ego".
Lastly, Sangam is also dealt with in Wimal Dissanyake/Malti Sahai's "Raj
Kapoor's Films - Harmony of Discourses" (Delhi 1988: Vikas Publishing
House), pp.67-73.

By the way, the connection between Bollywood cinema and masked male
homosexuality constitutes a common theme in critical writings on Indian
cinema (pursued with varying degrees of analytical sophistication), and
it seems to me that this particular cinematographic context needs to be
taken into account in one's reading of "Fire" (I haven't seen "Fire"
yet, and doubt that it will hit the cinemas/video rentals in Japan soon
...). As is often the case when Indian films are released in the West,
their positioning either within or against Bollywood, and the way in
which they comment upon themes that are current in Bollywood cinema, is
neglected in their critical reception. This is largely because Bollywood
cinema as such is either unknown or tends to be, from a viewpoint of
so-called "high culture", dismissed as vulgar, gaudy, and so on. It
seems to me that most reviews of "Fire" (those that I've read) have so
far focused on the reactions that it provoked, but have not pointed to
the way in which sexuality is represented in Bollywood films, and the
way in which "Fire" (presumably) can be read as commenting not only on
lesbianism in Indian society, but also on the depiction of
homosexuality, or the presence of homosexual undercurrents, in Indian
films. [If one reads ancient Sanskrit texts under the aspect of their
relation to other ancient Sanskrit texts, one can just as well read
contemporary Indian films under the aspect of their relation to other
Indian films ...] There's lots of food for thought here, though perhaps
not particularly relevant for the interests of the majority of this
list's "community".

Regards,

--
birgit kellner
department for indian philosophy
hiroshima university