Heaven on Earth

Today I watched Deepa Mehta's new movie Heaven on Earth . Movie is about Chand, a young Indian Punjabi woman who finds herself in an abusive arranged marriage with an Indo-Canadian man.

Everything is new to Chand, everything is unfamiliar including the quiet and shy Rocky who she meets for the first time at the Arrivals level of Pearson Airport. Chand approaches her new life and her new land with equanimity and grace, and at times the wide-eyed optimism of hope—her first snowfall is a tiny miracle of beauty, and the roar of Niagara Falls creates the excitement of new beginnings.

But soon optimism turns to isolation as the family she has inherited struggles beneath the weight of unspoken words, their collective frustration becoming palpable. A controlling mother who can’t let him go, a sweet but ineffectual father, and a sister whose two children and unemployed husband are also a burden. All live with Rocky and Chand in a two-bedroom house in the suburbs of Toronto. To make matters worse, Rocky is expected to find the money to bring his extended family to Canada. Unable to express his anger, he finds other ways to release it and it’s Chand who bears the brunt of his repressed rage.

Trapped in a world she cannot comprehend and unable to please her husband, Chand is desperate. Hope comes in the form of Rosa (Yanna McIntosh), a tough and savvy Jamaican woman who works alongside Chand in a factory where immigrant women from all over the world clean and press dirty hotel laundry. Rosa sees past the make-up that covers Chand’s bruised face. Realizing Chand has nowhere to turn, Rosa gives her a magical root advising her “to put it in whatever he drinks.” The root is supposed to seduce the one who takes it, making them fall hopelessly in love with the person who gives it to them. Chand’s attempts with the magic root lead to surreal incidents and her life gradually begins to mirror an Indian fable involving a King Cobra. As the lines between fantasy and reality converge, Chand and Rocky come face to face with each other and themselves.

Its so strange to see till today educated women are victims of domestic violence. There was one interesting scene where her mother-in-law tells her. Husband beating a wife is part of married life. In today's world also people think wives are stress reliever . I think its very common in Indian Villages but to see the same situation in Canada was shocking . Be it any place women still have to suffer.

One of my childhood friend also is facing the same problem.Her husband was fine with her for initial one year but after he daughter was born he changed.God knows what happened.He hit her very badly only 2 months after her daughter was born.She had decided to separate from her husband .Her husband told her I can give you divorce only on one condition you wont remarry or else I will take our daughter back from you.She spoke to her brother and parents about it but poor girl,her parents advised her to ADJUST .. I was shocked.I told her how can your parents do this to you they should support you.She said to me what can I do.. you tell me I have nowhere to go.I felt so helpless that moment. Its been more almost one year I have no contact with her . She is not allowed to call her parents nor her parents can call her. She mails me sometimes secretly.

I wish god gives her strength to handle all this.....

This movie really is a shocking fact of woman's life.