Deepa Mehta's _Fire_

[Michael Rabe]

From: "Andrew" <andrew at cyberback.com>
  To: <RABE at vaxd.sxu.edu>
  Subject: fire
  Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 11:24:30 -0600

  HI,
  to my amazed joy, "Fire" was available at local chain vid store and we
  watched it last night.

  As a contemporary movie dealing with difficult problems of tradition and
  modernity (questions I've been thinking about for Art Journal), I think
  "Fire" is excellent.  Except for the ending, which seemed to conform to
  Bollywood formula that someone must die for a problem to be resolved (and I
  confess I don't really know that much about Bollywood movies), the movie
  dealt with complexities in a sophisticated manner.  Artists talk about such
  complexities of contemporary and tradition, but few confront the issue head
  on effectively (not an easy task afterall).
  Maybe the lesbianism is simplified (I've not followed the controversy, is
  that what people tend to be upset about-- that it showed lesbianism?).  But
  the only artist well-known that deals with such an issue (gay) that I am
  aware of is Bhupen Khakhar, so it is not an openly discussed issue.  There
  are NRI groups more openly gay, but obviously that is a different situation
  than in India.  However, many people in India don't think of Bhupen as 'gay
  artist', simply as a famous artist.
      The tension of tradition and contemporary makes Fire important to me.
  When Sita said (something like) "I have a button in me called tradition and
  I can push that button and become traditional...." even when the tradition
  (fasting for a worthless husband) had no meaning, I thought that was the
  main issue.
      So, Mike, summarize the debate for me please.  I assume the
  fundamentalist Hindu voice simply feels threatened by the movie.

  Andre
***************
Andrew:
        According to the _IndiaToday_ article I quoted yesterday, Bal
Thackeray [simply] needed a new issue to enflame his Sainik partisans,
following the BJP Central Govt decision to permit the Pakistan Cricket Team
to tour India for a series of tests, scheduled to start shortly.  The rest
is history in the making...stay tuned.

Michael Rabe
SXU & SAIC

replying to:
Andrew Cohen, Ph.D. [University of Chicago]
Dept of Art
University of Central Arkansas
Conway, AR 72032