Fire

Today, I saw the movie – Fire. It was weird watching Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das making out. I can only imagine how odd they must have themselves felt while filming it. Or perhaps not. For them, it’s a job like any other. But I could not get into the skin of the characters – I kept thinking how odd it was. And it’s not like I am anti-lesbianism or something. I completely understand how lesbianism can be a turn-on and all that. This movie was, however, about rights and notions.

Too many people in our country think that desire is wrong. I don’t understand why people want to torture themselves in order to prove a point – vows of celibacy in order to show how pious they are, fasting two days a week for eternity to again show their devotion to God, walking barefoot to Siddhivinayak to pledge utter subservience - we are a nation of people who like self-abnegation.

The movie has this family in Delhi – who make their ends meet by operating a take-away and a video-parlor. The elder middle-aged son is desirous of ending all desire in himself, under the patronage of a swamiji he has been visiting since many years – the swami thinks that the sole purpose of sex is to sire sons who can take forward the family name. Since his wife is unable to have children, sex has no meaning for him and he has taken a vow of celibacy. To test himself, he uses his wife – he asks her to lie next to him so that he can prove his supreme control of himself - to himself. This has been going on since the past thirteen years. The younger brother gets married under pressure from the family, but is besotted by a Chinese girl and is unapologetic about the fact that he will continue to have that woman in his life – married or not and his wife will have to accept it. These two wives find compassion and love with each other. So, this movie is not so much about lesbianism as it is about choices. One does not have to sit and take atrocities – in the name of religion, in the name of illegitimate love, in the name of righteousness; one has the right to take steps to improve one’s life.

In the end, the two women leave to chart out their own paths.

On a lighter note – women are born a little bit lesbian. A man is either gay or not. Not the case for a woman. Varying amounts of alcohol or much-needed kindness/warmth may kindle it off. Yes, women are warm and sympathetic to other women – and that helps. But then, sex is not just physical for a woman, more than it is not just physical for a man - More on that later.