other title:
爱火
/
불
…
由加籍印裔女导演迪帕．梅塔执导，曾获芝加哥国际影展奖。因内容表现在打破传统的 “性禁锢"方面，所以公映时竟触发狂潮，成为众矢之的，导演本人亦遭受恐吓。剧情介绍新德里一个年轻美貌姑娘嫁入中产店主家庭后，因丈夫沉缅于香港功夫，并迷恋于中国艳女而受到冷落。而不育的大嫂亦因丈夫参与 “灵修"倍感寂寞，两人同病相怜遂成闺中好友，并发展成床上鸳鸯。后来东窗事发，迫使两人离家出走。该片在印度来讲，内容较为惹火，但比起香港片，似乎仍显平谈，而且剧情颇为噱头，算不上佳作。不过对女性情欲描写极为细致，有一定的文艺剧情趣味。该片还入选香港 “印度多面睇"十大印度影片。
Ashok (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) runs a family business that sells takeout food and which also has a video rental store at the side. Ashok's extended family includes his wife Radha (Shabana Azmi), his brother Jatin (Javed Jaffrey), their ailing mother Biji (Kushal Rekhi) and their manservant Mundu (Ranjit Chowdhry), all living under the same roof. Jatin, at the insistence of Ashok and their mother, Biji, agrees to marry the beautiful Sita (Nandita Das) in an arranged marriage, although he is actually in love with Julie (Alice Poon), a Chinese-Indian. At first glance, you see a happy middle-class family going through the normal paces of everyday life. However, as the layers are slowly peeled back, we find a simmering cauldron of discontent within the family, with almost every family member living a lie. Both marriages in the family turn out to be emotionally empty, without love or passion. While Ashok is an ascetic who has taken a vow of celibacy, Jatin is a handsome ladies' man who is still openly seeing Julie even after his marriage to Sita. Ashok has pledged his total devotion to a religious holy man, a swami, in order to purge his life of worldly desires and temptations. Radha, bound by her sense of duty to her husband, agrees to go along with his wishes. As you can imagine, with both husbands ignoring their spouses' emotional and sexual needs (albeit with reasons that are totally opposite from each other), it is only a matter of time before Radha and Sita look to one another for comfort and to satisfy their own passions. In this environment, it is only natural that Sita and Radha become fast friends, and, in time, much more than that. But their love is not without its share of painful obstacles.
