The unrelenting presence of fire is most strongly conveyed through the striking imagery, especially the colors used in the film. There is hardly a frame whitout a hint of red, orange or yellow. Buildings, saris, and flowers – all take on these "hot" colors, and even skin and hair seem to have a certain shade of orange. Thus we are encouraged to decipher its form.

One of the more obvious images of fire is that of a judge, which is expressed by means of allegory: the film draws a vivid parallel with the mythological trial by fire, undergone by Sita, king Rama's (king Rahm's) wife, which was first mentioned in the ancient Ramayana.

According to the legend, which established Sita as a model of wifely devoti

on in Indian culture, Sita undergoes a test to prove that she did not let herself, i.e. her faithfulness to her husband, be compromised while she was held captive by another man, Ravana. She walks in to a bonfire, but is protected by Agni, god of fire, and exits untouched by the flames, thus disproving doubts in her purity.

As tension culminates, the two opposing sides, fire and water, are brought together and intermingle. Immediately after Ashook sees the lovers in their own flames, a storm starts, and a metaphorical question rises in the viewer's mind: will the lovers' fire be put out? When Ashook succumbs to his physical desire for Radha, the results are again destructive. He blames her and leaves her to the flames. However, she survives and the answer to the above question becomes clear when the two lovers meet again.

As we can see, female emancipation is a fundamental theme of the film. And indeed, the film's action gains momentum from the conflict between Radha's and Sita's longing to be free to live according to who they are on the one hand, and the traditional roles of Indian women and wives on the other, while its didactic power lies in the undoing of this conflict: the two women retain their dignity and succeed despite the hostile environment.

The first reference to this legend, a grotesque scene in which the family's servant Mundu masturbates and then lies elaborately that he is excited because he has been watching Sita's trial on television, occurs quite early in the film. In this scene, the tried Sita's words "let the flames be my witness – if I'm impure, they'll destroy me" clearly expose fire as having the power to test a person and to implement consequences. This interpretation is reinforced when the film returns to the legend by making it the theme of a stage-play watched by the head of the family, Ashook, and Swamiji, his guru, where fire is named "discerner of truth" and literally called upon by the stage Sita to judge her.

Another form fire takes in the film

Some topics in this essay:
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