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Fire

1996, Movie, NR, 108 mins

Fire: Review

FIRE
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The extended family never looked so screwed up as this lower-middle-class New Delhi tribe. Mundu (Randit Chowdhry) works in the family take-out restaurant/video store and is expected to watch over mute, aged matriarch Biji, but actually spends his time beating off to purloined porno tapes while the silent mater watches. Radha (Shabana Azmi) is trapped in a barren marriage to Ashok, who's more dedicated to his swami than his spouse. Newlyweds Sita (Nandita Das) and Jatin (Jaaved Jaaferi), Ashok's brother, are patently mismatched, what with Jatin's interests running to his Chinese mistress and other corrupting, non-Indian influences. But Sita, homesick and wounded by her husband's indifference, manages to rock her sister-in-law's world, taking refuge in Radha's only briefly reluctant arms and setting the stage for family fireworks. Biji has her suspicions about the bond between daughters-in-law, but it's the treacherous Mundu who outs them after his own sleazy behavior comes to light. Indian director Deepa Mehta's script throws together some intriguing elements, intending the dissolution of this fragile family to mirror the drastic changes in Indian society. But Mehta's awkward and overly explicit dialogue gets in the way of her complex intentions, and while she and her cinematographer accomplish visual wonders, the film's pacing is clumsy. Since this is the second lesbian-heavy melodrama from the country Mehta claims "does not talk about sex" (surely KAMA SUTRA hasn't slipped your fevered mind) to be released in the U.S. this year, you could be forgiven for concluding that a) Indians are secretly sex-obsessed or b) India is the latest convert to lesbian chic and is making up for lost time. leave a comment --Sandra Contreras
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