WATER

I dont know if "water" was ever released in India. There were protests against that. Ironically, when the RSS (the right wing Hindutva fanatic group) was protesting agaist the film, it was BJP leader Jaitley who was representing Deepa Mehta's case as a lawyer. Money doesnt have politics and fanatism..

I have seen "Fire". It was a realistic film. And a good work. But it was a film made for urban and western audience depicting the life of average Indian middleclass.

The film interact only with an intellectual level. This is because the film is made for "outside" viewership. The film has an overdose of intellectual excercise. There is a scene in that, where Ramayana and story of Sita being narrated and the reaction that makes on both male and female characters. Another scene is the female character's sari (long dress) catching fire... These are all good scenes. No doubt. But when a film is made for a viewership group, which has nothing to do with the theme of the film, these type of films, do not make any impact in a society.

The biggest failure of the film is the story tries to blame the "male chauvinism" or patriarchism and not the system. A natural reaction of an average Indian woman would be: "Come on yaar! she is supposed to make chapatis at home. May be it is not a big deal they have formed a relationships (two ladies), but what can those husband do? If men have to do all other responsibilities, shouldnt these wives adjust with them and keep quite? and close their eyes to certain things to protect the family's sake?"

Where as an average commercial film "Agnisakshi" made a deep impact in the mind of average Indian women viewership. If you know how strong is the cultural belief related to the marriage--- That is if one woman marries a man, she should serve him throughout the life what ever may be the problems.. This is a very deep rooted belief, often never questioned. See how easily the film maker break this law.. and make a deep imact on the viewers' mind. After watching the film, it is quite natural for anyone to think: "Oh, she has done a good thing.. How can a woman live under such man?"

I am not trying to compare both the film. I agree the second one is a commercial mixture. However the key is that the first film focum the viewership which has nothing common with the characters of the story. "Fire" is just showcasing the "male dominance of Indian society" to a western audience or an English speaking urban middle class audience or an award committee. Where as by the very nature of a average bollywood mixture, the "Agnisakshi" is forced to communicate with the average viewers. So the charaters of the film "Agnisakshi" resonates with the viewers. While making the film "Agnisakshi" the director must have the viewers in front of him. If the viewers reject his film, the film fails in the box office. But for Deepa Mehta, the film is not meant for Indian market. Please understand that an "award film" which do well in many film festival easily make a good profit even if it fails in the local market. And the CDs and other stuffs and rights sell very well.

Thus, though I really consider the film "Fire" a good one, i would have really appreciated if this film was made for Indian audience and if it had made an impact here.

This is a dangerous trend for the Indian society. When Deepa made a film with a good theme, that is good. but already other film makers understood the business angle of the film. See "Black" it is an absolute trash made for a "outside"viewership. What message this film sends? Nothing. It is a big null and void. Thus more and mroe Indian film makers are now trying to make films for "ouitside" markets. This is not good for the local society because films used to be the biggest mass media to communicate with them. So now there is going to be only prime time mega serials which plays with the cheap sentiments of women (also men) folks. Any film would have been good. Even a bad film would have been better than a prime time masala serial. A film target a wide group of viewership and this include men, children, educated college going students, women, intellectuals, radicals, fools and all. Thus any bad film would essentially can not stoop below a certain level. But in the TV channels, certain times are "reserved" for women (and other jobless men). On these times only certain low standard programmes can be run successfully. And these serials and other settings now a days tries to present a certain steretypes "beauty" and shapes of women. They tries to present a certain class of society. moves away from realities. rarely come with a different pattern or story. Thus millions of ordinary womens and mens life has nothign common with these stories. This either makes the viewers just a passive onlookers or those made to feel inferior by comparing their real life and the unreal role models of their fantasies.

Thus according to me, though "Fire" is a good movie, and I really like that, there is something wrong with focusing to an "outside" market, by completely ignoring the local viewers.

Unfortunately when the film "fire" was released, Shivsena was suffering from an existential crisis. Once became part of both regional and cental power arrangements, they needed some thing to desperately keep their folks together. They started digging all the cricket pitches and when they found there is nothing more to dig other than their own grave yard, they tried to create a controversy in the namd or lesbianism.

I went to the film theater with the pre-assumption that this film is going to glorify lesbianism. So when I came of out film theater, I felt fooled. There was nothing controversial in that film. It was just an ordinary film (on the angle of controversial subjects). (yes, it was a different film, as it was a realistic narration).

I sincerely wished if BalThakkeray and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh had made a controversy about Ram's male dominance depiction. BalThakkary being a charicaturist of Time of India, in the past, he is definitely capable of understanding what the film is about. But unfortunately this guy BalThakkaray and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh thought if they try to create a controversy about "male chauvinism of Ram" their average followers cant understand that. May be they thought it is too complicated an issue for their followers. That was very unfortunate, these leaders underestimated the intellectual ability of their followers. And these leaders thought their followers can understad only "sex" and "lesbianism".

But that was too stupid. There was absolutely no controversy in that film about lesbianism. It was only a natural scene happening in all ladies' hostels and every where in the soceity. At least Deepa Mehta, after the controversy could have edited the film to include some controversial scenes so that those who purchase the ticket to see the controversy dont get disappointed.

I think that could be the reason why the Hindutva fanatics started making controversies about "water" even before shooting was started. They didnt allow Deepa to shoot near River Ganges. This was aimed to help Deepa Mehta uderstand what their agitatation will be after the film is made, so that at least Deepa Mehta can include that much controversy in that film. Please consider that Jaitly the Hindutva fanatic political wing leader was Deepa Mehta' lawyer in the court. May be he advised his party and his client to reach an understanding about this so that they both get benefited.

Coming to your question about why you are not getting responses--

Post your messages on Mondays to Fridays. Most Indians use internet at work. Last Friday being Republic day, most of the working people go home and dont use internet. Most visiting to webpages happens in India happens on Tuesday and Fridays. Monday people will be too busy at work. Tuesday they plan for the week activities using internet. Friday they time pass. So if you post a message on Thursday, you get maximum responses on Friday.

balu was not with times of india but with free press journal. left it in 1950s to launch his own cartoon magazine or something like that.
Then he went on to launch his own party. rest we all know..

to answer your questions.
water not released in india yet.
hopefully it should be released soon. unless morons decide to burn the theatres which is screening water. now thats irony.

Wasnt he with Illustrated weekly? TJS said this somewhere? I am not sure..

free press journal. gauranteed.

Ok, this is what wikipedia says.. and most sites do not mention even this--
"....Thackeray started his career as a cartoonist in the Free Press Journal of Mumbai in the 1950s, and was a contemporary of R K Laxman during his early years. His cartoons were also published in the Sunday edition of The New York Times. In 1960, he launched a cartoon weekly Marmik with his brother.."

I was having impression that Illustrated weekly. (interestingly there is no write up for Illustrated weekly of India in wikipidea). Thanks for correcting.

Another interesting thing- A BBC site says Thakkary fought against Gujarathis. I was having the impression that ShivSena was originally an anti South Indian group. When did he fought against Gujarathis?

that must be during the partition of bombay province or the recarving of the states into maharashtra and gujarat which included kutch.

For the film, it may soon be screened in India (as posted a day or so past). Hope it is better than fire which I found to be a straight rip off for the western audience..