An Interview with Deepa Mehta

Toronto-based Deepa Mehta emigrated to Canada in 1973 and made her first
film, Sam and Me, in 1990. She directed Camilla (starring Jessica Tandy
and Bridget Fonda) in 1992. After her stint in Hollywood she returned to
Toronto and Delhi to make Fire in 1996, a film about the transgressive
relationship between two sisters-in-law in a middle-class Delhi
household (starring Shabana Azmi). Fire received much critical acclaim
and was the first of her trilogy Fire, Earth and Water. There were
problems with the censor board in India but finally Fire had its
theatrical release there this summer. That fact and the premiere of
Earth (a film on Partition) at the Toronto Film Festival had her
brimming with confidence on opening night. Toronto, in all its
diversity, seemed to be there. The stars too were out to fete her, the
likes of Vinod Khanna and M.F Hussain.



RA: There were six films at the Toronto film festival that had South
Asian, but mostly Indian, talent as engines. Is this a promising sign?

DM: I would not say "promising." Next year there may not be six films
with South Asian content and talent. But it is inspiring. Speaking from
a personal point of view I see the evolution of a hybrid filmmaking.
There are films being made that are not Bombay and not from the west;
and I mean that in all aspects of film. In terms of talent, production
design, how the director deals with actors and characters I have a
sensibility that is no longer one that comes out of Indian cinema.

RA: What does that sensibility allow you to do?

DM: I can be uninhibited about subject. Whether it is about choices for
women (Fire) or Partition (Earth) I did not have to think about
repercussions as I would have in India. Nor did I have to wonder about
the censor board. That being said the Indian censor board has passed
Earth without a single cut. So you never know.
November 5th the film will be released in India. I wish it were being
released in Pakistan simultaneously.

RA: How did you come across Partition as a subject?

DM: I have always thought about it. I grew up in Amritsar and my father
went to Government College Lahore. So I grew up with the disillusionment
of Partition. Sectarian war, as a subject, fascinates me. So when I came
across Bapsi Sidhwa's book, where a Partition story is told from the
point of view of a child, I loved it.

RA: Who did you imagine were the audience of the film? It is a
melodrama. And a love story starring Aamir Khan. Will it cross over to
the West?

DM: I did not think of an audience when I made the film. It is a
personal enterprise. The film has very little English in it. I decided
that the film be mostly in Urdu, Punjabi and Gujrati because I could not
imagine the characters speaking English.
Nobody knows Aamir Khan outside the region. Who has seen Ghulam in the
West? But I want everybody to see the film. Most people in the West have
seen Gandhi and have no clue about Partition and the other side of
Independence.
I think calling the film melodrama is a put down.

RA: I was referring to your idea of hybrid filmmaking. Earth has a love
story, songs, and Aamir Khan but at the same time the film leaves you
with an unresolved crisis unlike conventional melodrama.
Did you think of Lahore as a location?

DM: I wanted to shoot the entire film in Lahore. We applied for
permission at the Ministry of Information but did not hear from them.
Simply did not hear from them. This was last August and I had to start
shooting by January.

RA: Naseeruddin Shah, in Toronto for the film festival, said expatriate
filmmakers and writers lack an intimacy with the Indian subject.

DM: I have spent half my life in India. I grew up in Delhi. But do you
have to live in India to be insightful about India? A lot of people talk
about this issue of being in or out. It may have to do with insecurity.

RA: What is your next project?

DM: Water. I am putting my passion of Fire and Earth to rest. It is set
in the 1920s in Banaras. I am writing the screenplay myself.