Courtesy:
IndiaFM
Wednesday,
September
20,
2006
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."
What
sort
of
trauma
would
it
take
for
a
woman
to
feel
free
in
prison?
Provoked
answers
the
complicated
question
of
domestic
disharmony
with
a
deft
and
direct
approach
to
the
question
of
a
woman's
place
in
the
man's
scream
of
things.
The
intermittent
flashbacks
showing
Kiranjit's
spousal
nightmare,
cut
deep
and
hard
into
the
narrative.
Full
credit
to
Aishwarya
Rai
for
plunging
deep
into
a
part
that
she
plays
straight
from
her
heart.
True,
at
times
she
looks
too
pretty
to
be
ravaged.
But
the
vulnerable,
fragile
little-girl-lost
quality
in
her
personality
works
to
great
advantage
in
portraying
the
spouse-burning
victim
as
a
woman
scorned
beyond
endurance.
There're
moments
in
the
narrative
where
Rai
melts
your
heart
like
an
ice-cream
cone
left
out
in
the
sun
for
too
long.
Madhu
Ambat's
cinematography
is
so
sweeping
in
its
specificity;
it
creates
a
spatial
bond
between
the
protagonist's
heart
and
her
hostile-to-compassionate
surroundings.
Mundhra
and
Sanjay
Mirajkar
have
edited
the
harsh
material
with
extreme
economy
of
expression.
The
film
moves
mercilessly
forward
leaving
no
room
for
a
breather.
Among
the
unforgettable
sequences,
count
the
one
where
the
stern
lady
constable
asks
Kiranjit
to
take
off
her
jewellery
and
clothes.
Kiranjit
pleads
in
hushed
anguish,
"Never
take
clothes
off
in
front
of
husband."
Aishwarya's
inherent
inhibitions
give
the
character
a
mocking
edge.
How
could
this
petal-tender
woman
set
her
husband
on
fire?
Imagine
the
levels
of
torture
she
must
have
suffered!
Blessedly
we
are
shown
only
fragments
of
Kiranjit's
trauma.
Director
Mundhra
makes
sure
they
are
enough
to
make
us
wince
without
making
our
stomachs
churn.
Cleverly
but
tenderly
formatted
as
a
thriller-
in-
flashback,
Provoked
opens
with
the
burning
figure
of
Deepak
Ahluwalia
(Naveen
Andrews)
running
screaming
out
of
his
house.
Mundhra
moves
smoothly
backwards
into
events
leading
to
this
gruesome
incident.
Female
bonding
has
always
been
a
favourite
theme
in
his
films
(remember
Shabana
Azmi
and
Deepti
Naval
in
Kamla?).
In
Provoked
the
bond
that
develops
between
Kiranjit
and
her
cell
mate
Veronica
(played
by
Vanessa
Redgrave's
daughter
Miranda
Richardson
with
supreme
sunniness)
is
remarkably
well-tuned
to
the
sisters'-solidarity
theme
that
forms
the
narrative's
backbone.
Nandita
Das
is
also
in
fine
form
as
a
spunky
'sister'
activist
holding
up
a
torch
for
the
torched
husband's
tortured
wife.
Every
actor
in
the
smallest
role
gets
it
right...and
bright.
Naveen
Andrews's
despicable
brutality
as
the
husband
makes
your
skin
crawl,
as
it's
meant
to.
But
the
film
clearly
belongs
to
Aishwarya.
She
gets
a
grip
on
her
character
Kiranjit's
predicament
with
a
fluid
grace,
her
large
swimming-pool
eyes
brimming
over
with
untold
grief
as
she
pleads
with
her
lawyers,
'Please
let
me
see
my
children.'
Children,
alas
cannot
see
what
Kiranjit
goes
through.
Maybe
they
should
though.
Next
time
they
see
Mummy
with
that
black
eye
they'd
know
she
didn't
walk
into
that
door.
Cast:
Aishwarya
Rai,
Naveen
Andrews,
Miranda
Richardson,
Robbie
Coltrane,
Nandita
Das.
Written
by:
Carl
Austen/Rahila
Gupta
Cinematography:
Madhu
Ambat
Music:
A.R.
Rahman
Director:
Jag
Mundhra