Filmmaker Mahesh Bhat has an "animal sense of repression that this is the signs of impending cultural emergency" Another eminent film personality Javed Akhtar has said "the incident should be taken in isolation, It is an another fascist, unfair and irresponsible act of Shiv Sena". The Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust has also strongly condemmed the act. In a signed statement at Delhi, the SAHMAT has said " if we cannot resist these things now, the Indian society and its creativeness will go back to the dark ages. The film has been acclaimed internationally and received 14 international awards. The film had been released obeying all laws of the country. "

Apart from the inteligensia, the attacks have evoked protests by left parties and in the houses of Parliament as well. The lead actress of film and Rajya sabha MP Shabana Azmi attended the house in Black Sari as a mark of protest. The left parties Congress party MP's strongly critised the moves by government to send the film back to censor board. CPI(M) MP Bharat Roy compared the attack with fascist signs of intolerance.

Meanwhile there have been signs of peoples resistance as well, many women worganisations in Delhi and Mumbai have taken up initiative for private screening of the shows, even to 'only women' viewers. It has been reported that there has been strong response even for the later.

The filmmaker Deepa Mehta too has breathed fire. "This kind of intolerance is scary, It is only beginning. Tomorrow these cultural police will break down even to our homes" she said. Mehta said " lesbianism was only peripheral" to the theme of film. "It is about how to be compassionate and in fact propagates tolerance. I doubt if any of teh Shiv Sainiks have watched it".

The Film 

The dueling loyalties of desire and duty fuel "Fire," a lesbian romance set in modern India. A talented cast lends subtle heat to this tender examination of loneliness and love directed by Deepa Mehta.

Radha (Shabana Azmi) tends the New Delhi video and take-out store while her husband Ashok (Kulbushan Kharbanda) seeks spiritual enlightenment through devotion to his swami. Since Radha is unable to have children, her husband of fifteen years takes a vow of celibacy to become closer to God.

When Ashok welcomes his younger brother Jatin (Jaaved Jaaferi) and his lovely new bride Sita (Nandita Das) to the household, sparks begin to fly. Jatin, who has married out of a sense of duty rather than love, openly spends his nights with his chinese mistress Julie instead of his new wife.

Drawn together by the loneliness they both feel, Radha and Sita's relationship progresses from sisters-in-law to friends. Sita questions the traditions that Radha has always taken for granted, like the fast they undertake to prove their devotion to their husbands.

Sita, whose husband mocks her for her innocence and demure nature, finds compassion and tenderness only with Radha, and the two sisters-in-law become lovers in secret. Deprived of their husbands' affections, the two women draw closer together in ways neither imagined. When their tryst is exposed, the explosive reactions from their families prove their cruel hypocrisy.

Nandita Das brings a luminous beauty to her role as the innocent ingenue who captures Radha's love. She deftly combines purity with desire to form a woman just on the brink of self-discovery. Shabana Azmi as the middle-aged Radha who has given up hope, also brings a world-weary strength to her role.