INSTEP Magzine

Premiering to much critical acclaim at last year's Toronto International Film Festival, Videsh/Heaven on Earth has been directed by Deepa Mehta, the woman at the helm of the acclaimed Fire-Earth-Water trilogy of films. It also made Bollywood headlines when Preity won an award at the Festival, and the ensuing tangles with the Indian Censor Board for the film's release.

But Videsh leaves one baffled: has Deepa Mehta lost the plot or have obscure allegories become en vogue for Indian cinema?

The film opens with Preity Zinta who plays Chand - a throwback to her stereotyped happy-go-lucky Punjabi girl role - singing along at her dholki with a number of women. The next morning, her mother gives her some obscure advice about snakes and then she is packed off to - Canada - one of the top three locales of choice for desis to immigrate.

She arrives in Canada to be greeted by her seemingly jovial and friendly in-laws, and her prospective husband, Rocky (Vansh), and it looks like a dream come true for Chand.

But the cracks in this happy family begin to emerge just days after the wedding. As it transpires, the family isn't that well off, with one son-in-law unemployed and Rocky's sister and Chand working at minimal wage to make ends meet, and Rocky working around-the-clock. Rocky's harridan mother - the matriarch of the household and the planner of the wedding - begins having doubts instantly as she realizes that she may have lost her hold on Rocky.

The focal point of this film is domestic violence. And filmmaker Deepa Mehta has notably focused on issues surrounding women in her cinematic ventures. Whether it was unorthodox homosexual relationships in Fire or the treatment of widows in Water, the films are always heartrending. And Videsh is no exception: within days, Chand falls into a pattern of domestic abuse as Rocky slaps her one day, kicks her on the other and then the marriage spirals into full-fledged beatings.

But Mehta takes care to not paint Rocky as an outright sadist. On the other hand, he is shown to be an intensely frustrated character; burdened with the responsibilities of having to provide for the entire household, live up to the expectations of his parents, dote on his harridan mother, and looks at his wife as a thorn who also has demands of him. While this isn't an attempt by Mehta to condone domestic violence, it is an interesting portrayal of a man who knows only violence as an outlet to unleash his anger and frustration.
The highlight of Videsh is Zinta's acting. This is her latest attempt after The Last Lear to veer towards more serious cinema, but Mehta truly brings out the best in her, and Zinta won the Silver Hugo prize at the TIFF for her role in the film. One cowers along with her as her husband looms over her, feels her pain and loneliness in the bitter Canadian winter and laughs with her as she makes a Jamaican friend at work and jokes with her. The black-and-white scenes that are shown after every battering with Zinta reciting an anecdote or verses are intensely poignant and one hopes to see her doing more roles like these.

But then Mehta makes the fatal mistake of traveling down allegory-highway, the same route that filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra also took in Delhi-6. In this case it's a snake (Mehra used a 'kala bandar'). And one wonders what Mehta was thinking. For anytime you put a snake into an Indian-language film, the first thought that comes to mind are of the ludicrous and kitsch snake films that Bollywood so thrived on. (Please watch Nagina and Nigahen starring Sridevi if the last line didn't ring a bell).

And as with Delhi-6, the entrance of the animal-allegory kills any hope one had of a great film. That said, the film still remains bearable because Zinta's acting is heartwarming even after one is put off by the snake's entry.

What Videsh also attempts to do is to explore the fabric of the family, with members of it that do not oppose wives being battered by their husbands. The circumstances, the spineless characters or the burdens Rocky's family has all play a role in this; but they could be the happiest people in the world and this would still happen, as one has heard of countless times in real life.

With domestic violence becoming one of the most talked about topics in the UK and the US after pop star Rihanna was beaten by her then-boyfriend Chris Brown, also ensuing in Keira Knightley filming a graphic advert to raise awareness on the topic and Oprah Winfrey dedicating a whole show to it, it is important that films like these are made and released in the subcontinent as well. The dream of moving to Canada - that so many in the subcontinent have - can easily turn into hell on earth instead of heaven, much like how it does for Chand in Videsh. The film is definitely worth watching; just try and not collapse into gales of laughter or begin singing 'Mai teri dushman / Dushman tu mera / Mai naagin / Tu sapera' when the snake makes an entry in the film!