Fire
炎の二人
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Two sisters-in-law in a joint family fall in love; Shiv Sena attacked the cinemas and the film went back to the censors.
As a child, Radha sits in a mustard field while her mother tells her about a person who longed to see the ocean. Radha does not understand the point of the story.
Years later, in Delhi, Sita arrives as a new bride in a lower-middle-class joint family. Her husband, Jatin, agreed to the arranged marriage only to stop his elder brother's nagging; he barely looks at her, even on their honeymoon, and goes on seeing his Chinese girlfriend, Julie. The brothers run a small shop that sells food and rents out videotapes. The household also holds their mother, Biji, left paralysed and speechless by a stroke; Mundu, the servant; and the elder brother Ashok's wife, Radha. Ashok follows a swami who teaches that desire is the root of suffering and must be suppressed. Because Radha cannot have children, he has not slept with her for thirteen years, and whenever he wants to test his resolve he makes her lie motionless beside him. Radha carries the guilt of being childless.
Sita will not accept the life she has been handed, and some of her defiance passes to Radha. One evening, shut out by their husbands, the two women turn to each other and become lovers. They keep it secret, find that they are in love, and begin to look for a way to leave; Biji sees it all and can do nothing. When Mundu learns of it, he makes sure Ashok walks in on them.
Ashok is horrified, and shaken to find that the sight has stirred his own long-suppressed desire. Sita packs and leaves at once. Radha stays to talk to her husband, and the women promise to meet that night. Submissive for so long, Radha finally tells Ashok what she feels. In the quarrel her sari catches fire, and Ashok watches without helping. Radha puts out the flames herself, remembers her mother's story and understands it at last: she can see her ocean. She leaves the house, and Sita is waiting for her.
Starring
Shabana Azmias Radha
The elder wife, childless and bound by duty, whose husband's vow of celibacy has left her untouched for thirteen years.
Radha’s story
As a girl in a mustard field, Radha hears her mother's story of a person who longed to see the ocean, and cannot see its point. Married to Ashok, she cannot have children and blames herself; for thirteen years he has not slept with her, and when he wants to test his vow against desire she must lie motionless beside him. As Sita's defiance reaches her, the two women, shut out by their husbands, become lovers and plan to leave. When she catches the servant Mundu watching pornography in front of Biji, he tells her he knows her secret, and leads Ashok to them. Radha stays to face her husband and at last tells him what she feels. Her sari catches fire and he watches without helping. She puts out the flames, sees her ocean, and goes to Sita.
Nandita Dasas Sita
A young bride married to an indifferent husband, who refuses to accept the life the household expects of her.
Sita’s story
Sita marries into Jatin's family in Delhi and spends the honeymoon at the Taj Mahal beside a husband who barely looks at her; he married her only to stop his brother's nagging, and still sees his girlfriend, Julie. At home she works in the hot kitchen, helps in the shop, tends the mute Biji and spends her nights alone. She draws close to Radha, and one evening they become lovers. 'There is no word in our language for what we are,' she says. She oils Radha's hair, dresses as a man to sing love songs with her in front of Biji, and plans their escape. When Ashok finds them, she packs at once and leaves, and waits for Radha as they promised. Radha comes to her.
Kulbhushan Kharbandaas Ashok
Radha's husband, who follows a swami's teaching that desire must be suppressed and gives him the shop's meagre earnings.
Javed Jaffreyas Jatin
Ashok's younger brother, who married Sita to end the family's nagging and keeps seeing his girlfriend, Julie.
Ranjit Chowdhryas Mundu
The family's servant, who discovers the two women's secret and makes sure that Ashok finds out.
Why it matters
Fire set a love story between two women inside the most respectable institution in Indian life, the joint family, and gave them the names of goddesses. Loosely based on Ismat Chughtai's 1942 story 'Lihaaf', it follows two wives whose husbands have each found a reason to ignore them, one in a girlfriend, the other in a swami's teaching that desire must be killed. When it opened in India in November 1998, Shiv Sena activists stormed cinemas in Mumbai and Delhi, the government sent it back to the censors, and it returned uncut in February 1999; a Campaign for Lesbian Rights formed in response. Some feminist critics argued that it reduced patriarchy to the denial of women's sexuality, and Deepa Mehta insisted the film was about the choices people make. Either way, its last image is of a woman who has been told all her life to wait, deciding not to.