Queen's to honour filmmaker; Deepa Mehta has been burned in effigy;; now she will be immortalized

Posted By Greg Burliuk
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She's been burnt in effigy by Hindu religious fundamentalists in the sacred city of Benares, India. Now Indo-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta is being feted by scholars in the Limestone City.

She will receive her honorary degree as well as address new graduates at a Queen's University fall convocation ceremony tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. And tonight, there will be a free screening of her film, Water, a nominee at this year's Academy Awards for best foreign-language film.

Just about to begin shooting of her latest film Heaven on Earth, Mehta was too busy to be interviewed for this story.

Her films have made strong statements about culture and identity in traditional India. The first filming of Water was shut down by religious extremists who thought the subject matters in previous films were taboo.

Water was part of a group of films Mehta called The Elements Trilogy. The first film, 1997's Fire, offended Hindu traditionalists, since it depicted a lesbian relationship between two middle-class women caught in loveless marriages.

"She's quite courageous for handling contentious subjects most shy away from," says Reena Kukreja, who teaches a course in Hindi language cinema at Queen's University and is herself a documentary filmmaker.

"She doesn't hesitate to address subjects that are deeply problematic. In this case, lesbian relationships were quite taboo and not discussed in other Hindi cinema. She didn't hesitate to take the bull by the horns."

And so when Mehta came to make Water, about the fate of widows in pre-Second World War India, the traditionalists were ready for her. It was 2000 and it was sacrilegious to them that someone they considered a heretic was going to shoot her film on the banks of their sacred river the Ganges. So on the night, before shooting was to begin, the extremists rioted and burned her set. It was years later before she was able to complete the movie, and shot it in secret in Sri Lanka.

"The Hindu religious right had gained political power at the time and they wanted to protect an idealized Indian past that had no flaws," says Kukreja. "There was no room in it for lesbianism or criticizing the Hindu tradition of putting away widows."

Giving up Water temporarily switched Mehta's direction. She decided to make a film that was all fun, and the result was Bollywood/Hollywood. Set in Toronto, it's a comedy about a young Indo-Canadian millionaire trying to find a bride so he can get his traditional parents off his back. Complete with song and dance numbers, it was a crowd pleaser.

Bollywood/Hollywood was the beginning a collaboration between Mehta and Mongrel Media, whose president, Hussain Amarshi, is a Queen's grad as well as the founder of the Kingston International Film Festival, which ran here in the late 80s and early '90s. The partnership with Mehta put Mongrel on the map, says Amarshi. Before it came along, Mongrel was just a distribution company for foreign-made films.

"Bollywood/Hollywood was the first Canadian script that we bought," he says. "It was launched in 2002 at the Toronto Film Festival. It was a huge hit and became the highest-grossing Canadian film of that year.

"It was her biggest film and she has said that it was a love letter to Toronto. After the first shooting of Water broke down and she received death threats, her spirit was hushed. When she came back to Toronto, she felt that she was coming home. Bollywood emerged after that."

Buoyed by the success of Bollywood/Hollywood, Mehta resumed shooting on Water four years after she had started it. The film, which takes place in 1938, looks at the traditional Hindu practice of women being put away in institutions after they are widowed, even if they are child brides.

In this case, an eight-year-old, high-spirited widow turns her new home upside down, and inadvertently sparks an ill-fated romance between a widow and a rich, young idealist.

Kukreja thinks the best film in the trilogy is the middle one, Earth, which is set during the partition of Pakistan from India in 1947.

"It talks about the dangers that are inherent in nationalism and religious fundamentalism," says Kukreja. "Not many films have dealt with this although it has been covered in books."

Born in 1949 in Amristar, India, Mehta was born into the the film business as her father was a film distributor and theatre owner.

She immigrated to Canada in 1973, where she formed Sunrise Films with then-husband Paul Saltzman. Together they worked on a number of documentaries and television shows. She made her feature debut in 1991 with Sam and Me, about the unlikely friendship between an Indian immigrant to Canada and an elderly Jewish man.

Recognition

Indo-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta will be one of four to be conferred honorary degrees by Chancellor Charles Baillie at Queen's University Fall Convocation ceremonies this week.

Also honoured will be Irish historian Robert Fitzroy Foster, who will receive his degree tomorrow at 2:30 p.m.

Former Saskatchewan lieutenant-governor Lynda Haverstock will receive her degree on Friday at 9:30 a.m.

Distinguished photographer Edward Burtynsky will receive his degree on Friday at 2:30 p.m.

Recipients of the honorary degrees are chosen by a selection committee chaired by former Queen's principal William Leggett.