Fire

Deepa Mehta's film again poses lesbianism as a facile cure for the patriarchal blues. A tight-knit, traditional New Delhi family is rocked when younger brother Jatin (Jaaved Jaaferi) returns from Canada with his new bride, Sita (Nandita Das). Her long-suffering sister-in-law Radha (Shabana Azmi) appears content to endure the neglect of husband Ashok (Kulbushan Kharbanda), who has determined to erase all desire from his life, including desire for his wife. Sita, however, is not willing to be submissive. Angered that her husband openly courts a mistress, Sita bonds with Radha, igniting a fire that neither expects.

Their relationship seems a precious contrivance, and the characters are pat. It's the hapless male characters -- the sad and ultimately bereft Ashok, and the sleazy but endearing Mundu (Ranjit Chowdhry), the family hireling and all-around sneak -- who come off as appealing and believable. They and the richly evoked New Delhi setting, simultaneously serene and vulgar, profound and tawdry, make the wan feminist subtext seem trivial. At the Coolidge Corner.

-- Peter Keough