Provoked
In prison she found freedom
- Directed By: Jag Mundhra
- Written By: Carl Austin, Rahila Gupta
- Country: UK/India
- Released: 2007
- Running Time: 113 Min
- Links: Official Site
- Drama, Reviews
In 1989, after ten years of abuse at the hands of her violent and drunken husband, Kiranjit Ahluwalia (Aishwarya Rai) threw a can of petrol over him as he slept and set fire to him. Not denying the charge of killing her husband, and speaking little English, the devastated Kiranjit is duly charged.
The violent history of Kiranjit’s husband, Deepak (Naveen Andrews) starts to emerge, in flashback, quite soon into the film and quickly becomes apparent to her defence team. However, because of the nature of her crime, she is unable to claim either self-defence or provocation and is convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
And this is really where the story starts.
In prison, the shy and frightened Kiranjit meets Veronica Scott (Miranda Richardson), her cellmate and the first person in a decade to extend a genuine hand of friendship towards her. With the support of Veronica – whose name is abbreviated to Ronnie – Kiranjit slowly starts to build her self-confidence begins to improve her language skills.
And it’s here, in prison, that Kiranjit starts to feel free for the first time in her life.
Meanwhile, the pressure group Southall Black Sisters have heard of her case and, led by the feisty Radha Dalal (Nandita Das), they start to both campaign for her release and to put together an appeal.
Provoked is based on the true story of Kiranjit Ahluwalia and the film is a serious attempt to address the issue of domestic violence. While it does feel a little worthy at times, the film avoids descending into sentimentality largely due to the stellar performances of the three main characters.
Miranda Richardson, Nandita Das and especially Aishwarya Rai all bring a real humanity to their roles and it’s this humanity that gives the film its powerful emotional punch.
This film is a real departure for Rai who takes on what is probably the most unglamorous role of her career. And, in a remarkable performance, she really does manage to make you forget about her looks and empathise – right from the outset – with her portrayal of a victim slowly starting to live again.
However, for much of the film, Kiranjit is largely reactive character and it’s playing against Richardson and Das that both brings out the best of Rai’s performance. It is also down to Richardson and Das to broaden the scope of the film so that it is able to go beyond being one woman’s story and address domestic violence as a whole.
The real-case of Kiranjit Ahluwalia was a legal landmark that helped create a new defence in court for women suffering from domestic violence. Provoked successfully shows how one woman’s courage helps fuel a national campaign that led to a change in the law.