Sita (Nandita Das) and Radha (Shabana Azmi) are two Indian women stuck in loveless marriages. While Sita is trapped in an arranged relationship with her cruel and unfaithful husband, Jatin (Jaaved Jaafei), Radha is married to his brother, Ashok (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), a religious zealot who believes in suppressing desire. As the two women recognize their similar situations, they grow closer, and their relationship becomes far more involved than either of them could have anticipated. 

The film is loosely based on Ismat Chughtai's 1942 story, "Lihaaf" ("The Quilt"). Fire is one of the first mainstream Bollywood films to explicitly show homosexual relations, and the first to feature a lesbian relationship.After its 1998 release in India, activists staged several protests, setting off a flurry of public dialogue around issues such as homosexuality and freedom of speech. It was the first time that a lesbian relationship had been explored on screen in India. 

Directed by Deepa Mehta, 1996,  108 minutes, English

Institutional Licensing Options

DVD with PPR: $349