A Critical Study of Deepa Mehta\'s Triology : Fire Earth and Water

Contents: Preface. Acknowledgements. 1. Introduction. 2. Desire in another language: the politics of fire. 3. Engendering history: 1947 earth. 4. Abandoned by the riverside: water. 5. Beyond national boundaries. 6. Deepa Mehta: on a personal note. Bibliography. Index.

Deepa Mehta is an acclaimed Indo-Canadian scriptwriter and film director. She challenges conservative social mores and attempts to rewrite history, representing her story instead of his. Mehta has been a controversial figure ever since 1998 when her film Fire was banned in India for its explicit portrayal of lesbianism. Her next film Earth spoke of the partition of India and how it affected the lives of women. With her third film water, Mehta again ran into trouble with fundamentalists when she tried to focus on the shabby treatment meted out to widows by traditional Hindu society.

This book makes a critical study of Deepa Mehta’s Elemental Trilogy Fire, Earth and Water. Focusing on the film texts, it examines the silent spaces in between the signifiers and tunes into the unheard voices that patriarchy has been deaf to. It also studies the impact of Mehta’s work, critically analyzing the hostile reception accorded to her work and the by and large favourable response of the female section of the society.