Faces of bravery

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Toronto, Sep 6 : Two striking cinematic essays, one real and the other a dramatised version of a true-life incident, are providing viewers at the 33rd Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) lucid glimpses of two different faces of Indian woman. Deepa Mehta’s Heaven on Earth, inspired by life of a victim of domestic violence, narrates the tale of Chand Grewal, a simple, God-fearing Ludhiana girl who moves to Brampton only to find herself hopelessly rapped in an abusive, loveless marriage.

First-time Australian filmmaker Megan Doneman’s Yes Madam, Sir, a documentary about the career of Kiran Bedi, highlights a courageous woman who fought against odds. Heaven on Earth is an expanded and stylised version of a documentary film that the director had made a year ago about a Punjabi woman who moved to Toronto after marriage and ran into a violent husband and unsupportive in-laws. Mehta’s directorial flourishes, marked by a masterly mix of the real and the imaginary, raise an oft-repeated narrative to a completely different level. Preity Zinta, who plays the protagonist in Heaven on Earth, is a revelation, turning in a high-calibre performance that strikes a fine balance between gut-wrenching emotion and unwavering restraint.

The star of Yes Madam, Sir is Bedi herself. In the film, she and those around her piece together an account of a woman who dared to take on the system to introduce reforms in Tihar Jail and in many other areas of policing when the Indian security forces had no female officer.