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Deepa Mehta appeals
to the Supreme Court
NEW DELHI, Dec 7 (AFP) - An acclaimed feminist film
director
Monday appealed to India's Supreme Court to ensure
that screenings
of her latest work, a lesbian love story, are no
longer disrupted by
radical Hindus.
Canada-based Deepa Mehta and leading Indian film
personalities
including actor Dilip Kumar and director Mahesh
Bhatt, filed a
17-page petition seeking protection for the film
"Fire."
The court was urged "to take all steps as are
necessary to
provide a sense of security, apart from mere protection
so that the
film can be exhibited."
Hindu fundamentalists have attacked theatres showing
the film in
New Delhi, Bombay and other cities. Based on the
love of two
sisters-in-law, both unhappily married, it stars
top actress Shabana
Azmi, who is also a parliamentarian.
The protests have led the film to be sent back to
India's censor
board for a review. "Fire", however, is
currently being shown in
movie halls.
About 400 women, including director Mehta and lesbian
activists,
meanwhile picketed a movie hall in New Delhi's downtown
Connaught
Place where protests had led the management to stop
screening
"Fire."
The demonstrators denounced last week's violence
and urged the
owners to resume shows.
A protestor screamed: "Lesbianism is prevalent
everywhere. Why
pretend it does not happen here."
Mehta argued in her court petition that her "fundamental
right"
as a film maker had been "strangulated by the
violence against the
movie" and sought an investigation "into
the acts of violence
committed."
The protest against "Fire" was ignited
by the Hindu militant
Shiv Sena party, which rules India's film capital
Bombay. Shiv Sena
activists say the theme is "un-Indian"
and could "corrupt" Indian
women.
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Film director
accuses Indian Govt
The Associated Press
By RAMOLA TALWAR BADAM
BOMBAY, India (AP) -- The director of a film that
features a lesbian kiss
and has sparked protests in India criticized demonstrators
on Friday and
accused local government officials of complicity
in the uproar.
Right-wing activists in Bombay, New Delhi, and
other cities have stormed
into theaters this week to try to stop showings
of ``Fire,'' saying its
sexual content was an affront to Hindu values.
``We have condemned the methods used by the miscreants
and the overt
support they received from the state government.
These attacks must be
stopped,'' director Mahesh Bhatt said.
A group of prominent theater and movie figures,
including Bhatt, signed a
petition Friday and sent it to the Supreme Court
chief justice protesting
the campaign against ``Fire.''
The Indian Censor Board is known for a heavy hand,
but allowed ``Fire'' to
be shown with no cuts. In addition to the women
kissing, the film has a
brief nude scene.
The movie had run to packed houses for three weeks
in Indian cities,
causing little more than raised eyebrows and a smattering
of protests. But
the protests by the rightist Shiv Sena party have
caused all shows of the
movie to be suspended in Bombay.
The film is about two women who have a lesbian
relationship because of
their unhappy marriages to two brothers. Homosexuality
and the unhappiness
of women in traditional families are rarely discussed
in India.
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Activists slam
attacks on lesbian film, Hindus vow to widen protest
BOMBAY, Dec 3 (AFP) - Attacks by right-wing Hindus
on cinema
theaters screening an Indian film portraying a lesbian
romance
sparked controversy on Thursday with MPs and leading
social
activists condemning the "gay-bashing."
Some 200 Hindu nationalists on Wednesday vandalised
two cinema
halls in Bombay, the hub of India's film industry
and its gay
capital, for showing "Fire" in which top
Indian actress Shabana
Azmi leaves her celibate husband for her sister-in-law,
who is also
unhappily married.
The controversy rocked parliament in New Delhi Thursday
with
opposition members slamming the Hindu nationalists
for "intolerance"
and "hoodlum rule" in Bombay. Azmi, who
was present in the house,
watched the fiery debate but did not comment or
interject.
The attacks triggered a strong reaction among social
activists
in the country.
Leading the chorus was India's best-known gay activist
Ashok Row
Kavi who said the protests were the latest form
of "gay bashing in
homophobic India."
"It is tragic that when Oscar Wilde, who represents
the
criminalisation of homosexuality, is being reinstated
in his country
with his statue unveiled in central London, such
a thing is
happening here," he told AFP from Bombay.
Kavi, a former Hindu monk, argued the attackers
were ignorant of
their own religion.
"Our criminal laws on homosexuality were bequeathed
to us by the
British, who had a Christian view of things, and
based it on the
King James Bible. Saint Augustine says lust is suspect
because it
obstructs in the exercise of free will.
"Hinduism on the other hand defines sex as
one of the three ways
of attaining salvation. Hinduism does not run away
from sexuality
and does not pass judgement on people who have different
preferences."
However, Meena Kulkarni, a member of a Hindu party
in power in
Maharashtra, of which Bombay is the capital, on
Thursday said she
would extend the protests to other parts of the
sprawling state and
the rest of the country.
Kulkarni told AFP that Shabana Azmi, who has worked
with
international stars such as Shirley Maclaine, should
be stripped of
her membership of the federal parliament.
"She should be thrown out. She has insulted
Indian women. They
have shown two women having a physical relationship.
"Even if such things go on on the sly, by showing
them on the
screen we are actually informing others about such
acts of
perversion. It will spoil our women."
Azmi said she was "shocked that a small group
of people can take
the law into their hands and disrupt a film that
has been duly
passed by the censor board and won 14 international
awards,
including two for best acting by me.
"The film is receiving an overwhelming response
all over the
world," she said, adding that noted feminist
Gloria Steinem had
called it a "landmark film."
Shobha De, a leading Bombay socialite-turned-writer
dubbed
"India's Jackie Collins," slammed the
attacks, saying they did not
reflect the public mood in her city.
"This is a miniscule section representing a
certain view. The
whole city does not think like that."
De, one of the first people to see the film, however,
said the
plot -- two women living under one roof and drawn
to each other due
to their husbands' neglect -- was ridiculous.
"Its suggests if a woman is unhappy or lacking
in male company,
she leaps into the bed of the first available women
as a preference.
That kind of thing happens in remand homes and prisons
but rarely in
a normal-life situation."
Kavi backed her on that count.
"I am against the depiction. It disempowers
female bonding.
Women in India traditionally hug and show other
physical forms of
intimacy without anything going on between them.
Those relationships
may now become suspect."
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Activists storm Bombay
cinemas
BOMBAY, India (AP) -- Dozens of right-wing activists
stormed two theaters in
Bombay today, prompting a movie distributor to suspend
the showing of an
internationally acclaimed film about a lesbian relationship.
The protesters claim the movie ``Fire,'' the first
film from India to focus on
lesbianism, distorts their culture. At least 100
activists with the right-wing
Shiv Sena Party surrounded the theater managers
and demanded the movie not be
shown.
The movie's distributor, Shringar Films, suspended
showing of the movie in
Bombay, citing concern for audience safety. Shiv
Sena activists have used
violence to get their way on other issues.
``We will wait and watch. Ultimately, audience
safety is more important,''
said Balkrishna Shroff, an owner of Shringar Films.
``Fire'' has been packing theaters in the three
weeks it has been running in
Bombay. Angry ticket-holders lined up for a refund.
``Why can't those who cannot stomach sensitive
subjects not come for the films
instead of stopping us from seeing good cinema,''
said Naina Fernandes, a
college student.
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Lesbian film sets India
on Fire
BBC Online, Nov. 13, 1998
By South Asia Correspondent Daniel Lak
When the film Fire opens in Indian cinemas it will
undoubtedly cause
outrage, enlightenment and confusion.
Fire has already been shown in many other countries,
but the Indian censor
board wanted to give it a thorough examination.
Daniel Lak asks if India is ready for FireIt passed,
and this powerful
story of two sisters-in-law who fall in love, is
being shown uncut in
English and India's national language, Hindi.
When the film was shown last year at two Indian
film festivals, there were
strong reactions, including negative ones from the
influential social
conservatives in India.
But one group of people in the country is awaiting
this film eagerly - the
Indian lesbian community, which for years has maintained
a silent, almost
secret existence.
Breaking new ground
The film's protagonists are sisters-in-law, trapped
in emotionally bleak
marriages, who turn to each other for comfort, love
and eventually, sex.
Deepa Mehta: "It has caused outrage, love
and confusion"Despite its vast
output and long history, Indian cinema has rarely
ventured into such a
realm.
Fire is not meant to be about gay life, but after
world-wide release, as it
makes its debut in India, it is sure to be provocative
and challenging.
Director Deepa Mehta aims to be provocative and
challenging: "Some people
are outraged by it, some people love it and some
people are confused by it.
I think it's not going to be any different in India
- at least I hope not."
Many of India's gay women are glad that Fire is
showing in their country.
The couple I spoke to, on condition they remain
anonymous, have been
together for more than six years.
They make no secret of their relationship, but neither
do they openly
proclaim their sexuality.
A lesbian character in the film is allowed to burn
by her shamed
husbandIndia, they say, has yet to come to terms
with the very existence of
female homosexuality. Finding a stable partner can
be tough when society
doesn't even acknowledge that women can be attracted
to women.
One said: "We live in the same neighbourhood
- so I've known her over the
years. We belong to the same group of friends. She
had been away in Africa
and I heard about her relationship there. Much later
when I went up to her
we became friends - and one day it just happened
- it just took over."
Acceptance not easy to find
Now, they live together and have a wide circle
of friends, some gay, most
not. And they are beginning to find the confidence
that is necessary to
assert themselves and their identity. Some changes
are tough though.
"With our families we could not interact with
each other as a normal
couple. That did bother us. It was not a proper
kind of acceptance - it was
more like 'yes, you're doing it - but we don't recognise
it - yet we're not
saying anything bad about it,'" one said.
The public in India is getting its first challenge
from the painted
billboards and hoardings up in major cities to advertise
the film Fire.
Their vivid depictions of scenes from the movie
are in keeping with the
Indian cinema tradition of promising more in the
advertising than is
delivered in the film - more sex, violence or titillation.
The fact that Fire passed the tough Indian censorship
process without a
single cut could be seen as recognition that this
is a serious film that
has chosen its scenes and story line carefully.
Or it could be taken as an indication that society
remains ignorant or
unaware of the sexual options before women.
Breaking through ignorance
Telephone counselling is now available in major
cities, like Delhi.
Until a helpline was set up, there was literally
nobody for women to talk
to. Cath Slugget, of the Sangini support group,
says those who call are
often confused and unaware.
So Indian cinema-goers will be seeing a film that
challenges taboos, and
has some vivid portrayals of passion and violence.
But Fire also makes it clear that overturning tradition
can be dangerous.
whatever comfort gay women might take from a sympathetic
story line Fire is
not a film that is likely to leave anyone here indifferent.
