Aishwarya Rai

Aishwarya in Provoked

In Irish novelist Roddy Doyle’s The Woman Who Walked Into Doors, the battered wife Paula keeps justifying her bruises by saying she as a habit walks into closed doors and hurts herself.

The battered wife Kiranjit in Jagmohan Mundhra’s jolting expose on domestic values never gets a chance to walk in or out of that closed London door where she lives with her brutal husband. She chooses her husband’s death over own exit.

It’s amazing how the true-life Kiranjit Ahluwalia found freedom by setting her brutal husband on fire. In one of the film’s most sensitively delineated dialogues, Kiranjit says to her rather overly benign prison mates, “I’ve never felt freer in my life.”

Provoked is based on an autobiography by Kiranjit Ahluwalia who was jailed for killing her violent husband by setting him on fire in 1989 after having endured a decade of rape and beatings.

Critics have often panned our beautiful Aishwarya Rai for her acting skills.

But this time, Aishwarya, has garnered praise for her realistic portrayal – a far cry from the trademark glitz of Bollywood films.

“Definitely, she has shown the pain of my life on her face,” Ahluwalia told the Hindu newspaper. “She has done a very good job.”

Ahluwalia was charged with murder in 1989 and sentenced to life, but the punishment was reduced after pressure from activists which put the spotlight on domestic abuse.

Director Jagmohan Mundhra said Rai’s allure for millions of Indians and an international profile would help pull in audiences for what is considered an unappealing topic in Bollywood, which mainly churns out candyfloss romances.

“It took me some time to release the film here because Indian distributors are not believers in non-formula films,” Mundhra said.

Well done Aishwarya! I have never been so impressed by your acting, personally! Way to go!!! Good luck. We love ya!

Aishwarya Rai

Director Jagmohan Mundhra’s Provoked starring Aishwarya Rai is a real life story dealing with domestic violence. The film was sent for censorship late last month wherein it was passed with an ‘A’ certificate. This incidentally miffed the director.

“The film Provoked deals with domestic violence wherein Aishwarya Rai is subjected to physical, mental and verbal abuses by her husband. Hence the film had many abusive words. So we had to give it an adult certificate,” says Censorship Examining committee member Nandini Sardesai.

She further adds, “But Mundhra was not content with this outcome. So he agreed to delete the four letter words and got the film for re-censorship. Now it has been given a ‘U/A’ certificate.”

Sardesai says that Mundhra felt the need for the film to reach a wider audience because of its delicate issue. Giving the film an A certificate would have, thus limited the audience in the theatres. As a result, he agreed to delete abusive language from the movie.

Additionally, in order to reach a cross section of the society, Mundhra is also dubbing the film in the Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu languages. However, Mundhra will have to apply independently for censorship of each dubbed version.

Though the release date of the film isn’t finalized, Mundhra is planning to release the movie after 4 April, once the exam and the Cricket World Cup fever subsides.

The film was also screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006.