India: 

Main Akeli Nahi: Preity Zinta and Vansh Bhardwaj in Heaven On Earth

Now that Deepa Mehta is getting her new film Heaven On Earth starring Preity Zinta ready for an October release, she's aghast to hear that the film is being seen as the story of just one battered wife.

Of nightmares

"That's what I'm being told. That it's the story of Aman Deep who came to Toronto from her village in Punjab only to become an abused wife. Aman is, of course, a part of Heaven On Earth. But so are  10,000 other Indian or non-Indian women who end up as battered wives."

Deepa says she has been inspired by countless sources. "I was as much taken up by Aman Deep's case as I was with Mona Gill, another wife who came to Canada with dreams in her eyes and ended  up with nightmares on her body. I'm also inspired by  Roddy Doyle's novel The Woman Who Walked Into Doors. And I'm hugely inspired by Girish Karnad's play Naga Mandala. In fact, I've acknowledged Girish's play in the credit titles."

As for the battered wives, "How many of them can I acknowledge? The collective conscience of the entire universe of repressed woman underlines the narration of Heaven On Earth."

Deepa had the film's first preview recently in Toronto. "There was a pindrop silence after the film. Though I've kept the violence largely out of camera range; it's a very disturbing film. And a lot of  people who know Preity's work couldn't recognise her!"