Elements trilogy
Encyclopedia
The Elements trilogy is a trilogy
of films by Indian film
-maker Deepa Mehta
, dealing with controversial issues of social reform on the Indian subcontinent
. Fire, the first release in 1996, dealt with issues of arranged marriage
and homosexuality
in the patriarchal culture of India
. Earth
, released in 1998, dealt with the religious strife associated with the partition of India
and formation of Pakistan
in the mid-20th century. Water, released in 2005, was the most critically successful of the three, and dealt with suicide
, misogyny, and the mistreatment of widows in rural India.
Some notable actors that have worked in Mehta's Elements trilogy include Aamir Khan
, Seema Biswas
, Shabana Azmi
, John Abraham
, Kulbhushan Kharbanda
, Rahul Khanna
, Lisa Ray
, and Nandita Das
. A. R. Rahman
composed critically acclaimed soundtracks for all the three films. These films are also notable for Mehta's collaborative work with author Bapsi Sidhwa
. Sidhwa's novel Cracking India
, (1991, U.S.; 1992, India; originally published as Ice Candy Man, 1988, England), is the basis for Mehta's 1998 film, Earth
. Mehta's film, Water, was later published by Sidhwa as the 2006 novel, Water: A Novel
.
(1998) (released in India as 1947: Earth) tells the story of the partition of India
in 1947 from the vantage point of a young Parsi girl. Earth was the Indian nominee for the 2000 72nd Academy Award for Best Foreign film, but was not included among the final five nominees selected by the AMPAS.
. Water was nominated for the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
, making it Canada's first non-French-language film to receive a nomination in that category. The song Aayo Re Sakhi was included in the final list for Oscar nomination.
, Nandita Das
and Akshay Kumar
. Her earlier film, Fire, however, had previously attracted hostility from some people in the Hindu community (who objected to her depiction of Hindu culture) and had organized attacks on cinemas that screened that film. Thus, the day before filming of Water was due to begin, the crew was informed that there were complications with gaining location permits. The following day, they learned that 2,000 protesters had stormed the ghats
, destroying the main film set, burning and throwing it into the Ganges in protest of the film's subject matter.
The resulting tensions meant that Mehta struggled for many years to make Water and was eventually forced to make it in Sri Lanka
rather than India. She eventually made the film, with a new cast, and a fake title used during filming (River Moon) in 2003. The struggle to make the film was detailed in a non-fiction book, Shooting Water: A Mother-Daughter Journey and the Making of the Film, written by Mehta's daughter, author Devyani Saltzman
(whose father is Canadian producer and director Paul Saltzman
, son of pioneering Canadian weather forecaster Percy Saltzman
).
Critical responses to Mehta's work surfaced also during the release of Fire in 1998 because members of the Hindu Shiv Sena
party felt it was an attack on Hindu tradition and the institution of marriage. Members of the party engaged in mass protests against the film at cinemas in Mumbai and Delhi. After the movie's release, Mehta spent nearly a year under 24-hour police protection while traveling through North America and Europe. Mehta and others, including feminists who took issue with the film for other reasons (see "Criticism"), engaged in counter demonstrations to prevent the censorship of the film.
Other critics have argued that Mehta overlooks the complex politics of post-colonial India in her films, particularly when she portrays "oppressed" women and confirms Orientalist stereotypes about the "exotic" and "strange" nature of Indian culture, as in her film Water. Some critics have suggested that in the current geo-political context of imperialism that often relies on narratives of "saving women" (e.g. the U.S. War on Terror utilizing the "oppressed Muslim woman" narrative to morally justify war), Mehta's characters are too easily read by the audience as passive victims who need to be saved rather than agents in their own history.
Madhu Kishwar
, then-editor of Manushi
, wrote a highly critical review of Fire, finding fault with the depiction of the characters in the film as a "mean spirited caricature of middle class family life among urban Hindus". She claimed that homosexuality was socially accepted in India as long as it remained a private affair, adding that Mehta "did a disservice to the cause of women... by crudely pushing the Radha-Sita relationship into the lesbian
mould," as women would now be unable to form intimate relationships with other women without being branded as lesbians.
Trilogy
A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected, and that can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, or video games...
of films by Indian film
Cinema of India
The cinema of India consists of films produced across India, which includes the cinematic culture of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal. Indian films came to be followed throughout South Asia and...
-maker Deepa Mehta
Deepa Mehta
Deepa Mehta, LLD is a Genie Award-winning Indian-born Canadian film director and screenwriter, most known for her Elements Trilogy, Fire , Earth , and Water , among which Earth was submitted by Indian government for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film...
, dealing with controversial issues of social reform on the Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
. Fire, the first release in 1996, dealt with issues of arranged marriage
Arranged marriage
An arranged marriage is a practice in which someone other than the couple getting married makes the selection of the persons to be wed, meanwhile curtailing or avoiding the process of courtship. Such marriages had deep roots in royal and aristocratic families around the world...
and homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
in the patriarchal culture of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. Earth
Earth (1998 film)
Earth is a 1998 film directed by Deepa Mehta. It is based upon Bapsi Sidhwa's novel, Cracking India, . Earth is the second part of Mehta's Elements trilogy...
, released in 1998, dealt with the religious strife associated with the partition of India
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
and formation of Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
in the mid-20th century. Water, released in 2005, was the most critically successful of the three, and dealt with suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
, misogyny, and the mistreatment of widows in rural India.
Some notable actors that have worked in Mehta's Elements trilogy include Aamir Khan
Aamir Khan
Aamir Hussain Khan is an Indian film actor, director and producer who has established himself as one of the leading actors of Hindi cinema....
, Seema Biswas
Seema Biswas
Seema Biswas is an Indian film and theatre actress from Assam who shot into prominence with the role of Phoolan Devi in Shekhar Kapur's film Bandit Queen . She has a reputation for performing strong character roles.Biswas won the 1996 National Film Award for Best Actress for her role in the film...
, Shabana Azmi
Shabana Azmi
Shabana Azmi is an Indian actress of film, television and theatre. An alumna of the Film and Television Institute of India of Pune, she made her film debut in 1974 and soon became one of the leading actresses of parallel cinema, an Indian New Wave movement known for its serious content and...
, John Abraham
John Abraham (actor)
John Abraham is an Indian film actor and former model. After modeling for numerous advertisements and companies, Abraham made his film debut with Jism , which earned him a Filmfare Best Debut Award nomination. This was followed by his first commercial success, Dhoom...
, Kulbhushan Kharbanda
Kulbhushan Kharbanda
Kulbhushan Kharbanda is an Indian actor, who worked in Hindi and Punjabi films, and is known as character Shakaal in Shaan inspired by the character of Blofeld from James Bond movies...
, Rahul Khanna
Rahul Khanna
- Early life and background :Khanna was born and raised in Mumbai. His father is Bollywood matinee idol & politician, Vinod Khanna, and his younger brother is Bollywood actor, Akshaye Khanna....
, Lisa Ray
Lisa Ray
Lisa Ray , born 4 April 1972, is a Canadian actress and former model.-Early life:Lisa Ray was born in Toronto to a Bengali Indian father and a Polish mother and grew up in the suburb of Etobicoke...
, and Nandita Das
Nandita Das
Nandita Das is an award-winning Indian film actress and director. As an actress, she is known for her performances in Fire , Earth , Bawandar , Kannathil Muthamittal and Aamaar Bhuvan . As a director, she is known for her directorial debut Firaaq , which has won a number of national and...
. A. R. Rahman
A. R. Rahman
Allah Rakha Rahman is an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and philanthropist. Described as the world's most prominent and prolific film composer by Time, his works are notable for integrating eastern classical music with electronic music sounds, world music genres and...
composed critically acclaimed soundtracks for all the three films. These films are also notable for Mehta's collaborative work with author Bapsi Sidhwa
Bapsi Sidhwa
Bapsi Sidhwa is an author of Pakistani origin who writes in English. She is perhaps best known for her collaborative work with filmmaker Deepa Mehta: Sidhwa wrote both the 1991 novel Ice Candy Man which is the basis for Mehta's 1998 film Earth as well as the 2006 novel Water: A Novel which is...
. Sidhwa's novel Cracking India
Cracking India
Cracking India, is a novel by author Bapsi Sidhwa.Sidhwa's novel deals with the partition of India and its aftermaths. This is the first novel by a female novelist from Pakistan which describes the fate of people in Lahore...
, (1991, U.S.; 1992, India; originally published as Ice Candy Man, 1988, England), is the basis for Mehta's 1998 film, Earth
Earth (1998 film)
Earth is a 1998 film directed by Deepa Mehta. It is based upon Bapsi Sidhwa's novel, Cracking India, . Earth is the second part of Mehta's Elements trilogy...
. Mehta's film, Water, was later published by Sidhwa as the 2006 novel, Water: A Novel
Water (novel)
Water, , U.S., 2006, India; is a novel by author Bapsi Sidhwa.-Plot summary:Water is set in 1938, when India was still under the colonial rule of the British, and when the marriage of children to older men was commonplace...
.
Fire (1996)
The first film in the series, Fire (1996), is set in contemporary India. It was a highly controversial film among certain more conservative quarters in India due to its depictions of gender, marriage, and (homo)sexuality and particularly because of use of the names of Hindu goddesses with characters and portraying these characters as lesbians.Earth (1998)
EarthEarth (1998 film)
Earth is a 1998 film directed by Deepa Mehta. It is based upon Bapsi Sidhwa's novel, Cracking India, . Earth is the second part of Mehta's Elements trilogy...
(1998) (released in India as 1947: Earth) tells the story of the partition of India
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
in 1947 from the vantage point of a young Parsi girl. Earth was the Indian nominee for the 2000 72nd Academy Award for Best Foreign film, but was not included among the final five nominees selected by the AMPAS.
Water (2005)
The final film in the trilogy, Water (2005), is set in the 1930s and focuses upon the difficult lives of an impoverished group of widows living in an ashramAshram
Traditionally, an ashram is a spiritual hermitage. Additionally, today the term ashram often denotes a locus of Indian cultural activity such as yoga, music study or religious instruction, the moral equivalent of a studio or dojo....
. Water was nominated for the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
, making it Canada's first non-French-language film to receive a nomination in that category. The song Aayo Re Sakhi was included in the final list for Oscar nomination.
Controversy
Mehta had originally intended to direct Water in February 2000, with the actors Shabana AzmiShabana Azmi
Shabana Azmi is an Indian actress of film, television and theatre. An alumna of the Film and Television Institute of India of Pune, she made her film debut in 1974 and soon became one of the leading actresses of parallel cinema, an Indian New Wave movement known for its serious content and...
, Nandita Das
Nandita Das
Nandita Das is an award-winning Indian film actress and director. As an actress, she is known for her performances in Fire , Earth , Bawandar , Kannathil Muthamittal and Aamaar Bhuvan . As a director, she is known for her directorial debut Firaaq , which has won a number of national and...
and Akshay Kumar
Akshay Kumar
Akshay Kumar is an Indian film actor, producer and martial artist who has appeared in over a hundred Hindi films. When he began his acting career in the 1990s, he primarily starred in action films and was particularly known for his appearances in feature films commonly called the "Khiladi series",...
. Her earlier film, Fire, however, had previously attracted hostility from some people in the Hindu community (who objected to her depiction of Hindu culture) and had organized attacks on cinemas that screened that film. Thus, the day before filming of Water was due to begin, the crew was informed that there were complications with gaining location permits. The following day, they learned that 2,000 protesters had stormed the ghats
Ghats
As used in many parts of South Asia, the term ghat refers to a series of steps leading down to a water body, usually a holy river. In Bengali-speaking regions, this set of stairs can lead down to something as small as a pond or as large as a major river....
, destroying the main film set, burning and throwing it into the Ganges in protest of the film's subject matter.
The resulting tensions meant that Mehta struggled for many years to make Water and was eventually forced to make it in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
rather than India. She eventually made the film, with a new cast, and a fake title used during filming (River Moon) in 2003. The struggle to make the film was detailed in a non-fiction book, Shooting Water: A Mother-Daughter Journey and the Making of the Film, written by Mehta's daughter, author Devyani Saltzman
Devyani Saltzman
Devyani Saltzman is a Canadian author and daughter of film directors Paul Saltzman and Deepa Mehta.She is the writer of Shooting Water, a memoir, as well as articles for The Globe and Mail, Marie Claire and The Walrus Magazine....
(whose father is Canadian producer and director Paul Saltzman
Paul Saltzman
Paul Saltzman is a two-time Canadian Emmy Award-winning film and television producer-director with more than 300 films to his credit. The 2008 documentary feature, Prom Night in Mississippi, featuring actor Morgan Freeman, was his most recent film and premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film...
, son of pioneering Canadian weather forecaster Percy Saltzman
Percy Saltzman
Percy Saltzman, was a meteorologist and television personality best remembered for being the first weatherman in Canadian television history....
).
Critical responses to Mehta's work surfaced also during the release of Fire in 1998 because members of the Hindu Shiv Sena
Shiv Sena
Shiv Sena , is a political party in India founded on 19 June 1966 by Balasaheb Thackeray. It is currently headed by Thackeray's son, Uddhav Thackeray...
party felt it was an attack on Hindu tradition and the institution of marriage. Members of the party engaged in mass protests against the film at cinemas in Mumbai and Delhi. After the movie's release, Mehta spent nearly a year under 24-hour police protection while traveling through North America and Europe. Mehta and others, including feminists who took issue with the film for other reasons (see "Criticism"), engaged in counter demonstrations to prevent the censorship of the film.
Criticism
Indian feminist authors Mary E. John and Tejaswini Niranjana argued in 1999 that Fire reduces patriarchy to the denial and control of female sexuality:
Control of female sexuality is surely one of the ideological planks on which patriarchy rests. But by taking this idea literally, the film imprisons itself in the very ideology it seeks to fight, its own version of authentic reality being nothing but a mirror image of patriarchal discourse. 'Fire' ends up arguing that the successful assertion of sexual choice is not only a necessary but also a sufficient condition--indeed, the sole criterion--for the emancipation of women. Thus the patriarchal ideology of 'control' is first reduced to pure denial -- as though such control did not also involve the production and amplification of sexuality -- and is later simply inverted to produce the film's own vision of women's liberation as free sexual 'choice.' (Economic and Political Weekly, March 6–13, 1999)
Other critics have argued that Mehta overlooks the complex politics of post-colonial India in her films, particularly when she portrays "oppressed" women and confirms Orientalist stereotypes about the "exotic" and "strange" nature of Indian culture, as in her film Water. Some critics have suggested that in the current geo-political context of imperialism that often relies on narratives of "saving women" (e.g. the U.S. War on Terror utilizing the "oppressed Muslim woman" narrative to morally justify war), Mehta's characters are too easily read by the audience as passive victims who need to be saved rather than agents in their own history.
Madhu Kishwar
Madhu Kishwar
Madhu Purnima Kishwar is an Indian academic. She is the Senior Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies , based in Delhi, and the Director of the Indic Studies Project based at CSDS and Convener of a series of International Conferences on “Religions and Cultures in the Indic...
, then-editor of Manushi
Manushi
Manushi: A Journal about Women and Society is an Indian magazine devoted to feminism as well as to gender studies and activism. It was founded in 1978 by Madhu Kishwar and Ruth Vanita, two scholars based in New Delhi. It is currently published as a bi-monthly; a total of 157 issues have appeared by...
, wrote a highly critical review of Fire, finding fault with the depiction of the characters in the film as a "mean spirited caricature of middle class family life among urban Hindus". She claimed that homosexuality was socially accepted in India as long as it remained a private affair, adding that Mehta "did a disservice to the cause of women... by crudely pushing the Radha-Sita relationship into the lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
mould," as women would now be unable to form intimate relationships with other women without being branded as lesbians.