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DEEPA MEHTA might have a penchant for unconventional and often controversial themes, but the director says she will retire as a filmmaker if her films start resembling message-laden documentaries. The Canada-based director, who is credited to be the first filmmaker to explore homosexuality in India through her film Fire, said her motive is always to tell good stories.
The director, whose latest offering Videsh explores domestic violence in a family of first generation migrants, said the film was not a documentary on domestic violence. "My film is not a kitchen-sink drama about domestic violence. It explores a woman’s hidden power and how she overcomes the brutality of her situation by using mythology and imagination. "It is so easy to label a film in a certain category but I feel it is the worst disservice that you can do to filmmakers as it limits their vision," said Mehta. The film, which released in India recently, stars Preity Zinta in the lead. The critically acclaimed film was earlier released in the West as Heaven on Earth. Zinta won her first international award at the Chicago Film Festival for her portrayal of a woman trapped in an abusive relationship in an alien country. The star known for her sartorial sense underwent a complete makeover to play the deglamourised Punjabi woman. Mehta, who has woven stories from her own childhood into the screenplay of the film said Videsh is different from other films made on the topic of domestic violence. "It is not about revenge or redemption by killing the person who abused you. It is about how you keep your dignity intact. In the film, Chand’s mother tells her a story about a snake while she is still a young girl in Ludhiana. It is a story that my mother used to tell me.
"It is an old folktale about a fakir and a snake. The moral of the story being that you can protect yourself without harming anybody and that’s what Videsh is all about," said Mehta. The director has also incorporated some elements from Girish Karnad’s play Nagamandala into her film. Mehta, who discovered Nandita Das while looking for a female lead in Fire, has cast Bollywood stars like Preity Zinta and Akshay Kumar in her recent films. When asked whether this was her attempt to widen her audience base in India, the filmmaker replied, "I always cast actors who are suitable for the role. But if I have the choice between a star and an unknown actor, both suitable for the role, I would tend to chose the star because it means a wider audience." Mehta, who is known for her film trilogy Fire, Earth and Water, said she is now focussing on individual stories. "I think three is
enough. I will focus on independent stories now," said Mehta,
whose next project is a film based on the 1914 Komagatamaru incident
with Akshay Kumar in the lead. — PTI
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"I
make films out of stories that touch me. I hope my films don’t
preach, otherwise I will retire. It is not very different from
propaganda. Politicians can get away with it but filmmakers should not
indulge in it," Mehta said in an interview.
