Deepa Mehta's _Fire_

[nathalie Pernstich]

The burning sari scene, apart from reminding of dowry death methods, is a
trial by fire of Radha and all the movie's issues.  And of course Radha
survives her 'trial by fire', thereby proving purity of heart and all that;
otherwise the last scene would -er- 'backfire' on the whole film.


----------
> Von: Michael Rabe <mrabe at ARTIC.EDU>
> An: INDOLOGY at LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK
> Betreff: Re: Deepa Mehta's _Fire_
> Datum: Montag, 11. Januar 1999 10:26
>
> 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