Fire

Fire (1997) — watch online on iFILM the first film in Deepa Mehta's Elements Trilogy. Radha's husband has retreated into religious celibacy; Sita's is openly with another woman. Both are trapped in the same Delhi household, their marriages quietly hollow — and what begins as shared loneliness slowly becomes something else entirely.

Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das carry the film with extraordinary restraint. When Fire opened in India, cinemas screening it were attacked by nationalist protesters — it was the first Hindi film to depict a relationship between two women without apology. That kind of reaction is its own review.

Mehta went on to make Earth and Water to complete the trilogy. Fire is the quietest of the three and the one that landed hardest on release. Stream Fire (1997) online on iFILM.