India ignores film on domestic violence

(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-04-26 16:46

MUMBAI- Indians, no strangers to domestic abuse, have shunned a new film inspired by the true story of a wife who murdered her abusive husband but won a court reprieve and accolades for her courage.

"Provoked" is based on the autobiography of an Indian immigrant in Britain who was jailed in 1989 for burning alive her husband, another Indian immigrant, after suffering 10 years of rape and abuse at his hands.

Director Jag Mundhra says he hoped the film would raise awareness against domestic violence in India where, U.N. figures show, more than two-thirds of married women aged 15-49 years are victims of beating, rape or forced sex.

But despite generally good reviews and featuring one of India's biggest stars, "Provoked" has bombed at the Indian box office because, film critics say, the public wants entertaining issues.

"We are basking in our economic success and the mood now is for entertainment that will reflect happiness, not reality," Indu Mirani, a leading Indian critic, told Reuters.

"Provoked was an important film and people in an abuse-ridden country like ours needed to see it."

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Aishwarya Rai, a former Miss World and a top Indian star portrays Kiranjit Ahluwalia, the abused wife. She said in interviews that she hoped the film would raise awareness against domestic violence in India and "cheat marriages."

Ahluwalia's tragic story reflects the lives of thousands of starry-eyed girls seeking a better life in the West who are duped into wedlock by men of Indian origin living in countries such as the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia.

Ahluwalia was sentenced to life in prison, but her case was taken up by the pressure group Southall Black Sisters, and in 1992 the sentence was quashed.

The landmark judgment redefined domestic abuse in Britain and created a defence for people suffering it.

Critics say "Provoked," if watched, could have made a difference to many lives.

"It's a film of substance. A film that would move many," film critic Aparajita Anil wrote in the Indian Express newspaper.

But Mirani says the film's reality is too much for Indian men.

"They don't want to be told to behave."

"And for most Indian women it's a shameful episode that is best not heard, seen or spoken about."