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Provoked (122 mins)
Directed by Jag Mundhra
Starring Aishwarya Rai, Miranda Richardson, Naveen Andrews, Rebecca Pidgeon
Provoked has an important true-life story to tell, of how Punjabi woman Kiranjit Ahluwalia (Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai) came to England after an arranged marriage to a violent, drunken sadist and bore him two children.
In 1988, unable to bear the brutality any longer, she poured petrol over him as he slept and set him alight. She was convicted of murder and jailed for 20 years, but after an appeal three years later, the charge was reduced to manslaughter and she was freed, the case creating a major precedent concerning the nature of provocation.
The film is decent enough but stilted and uncertain, and it doesn’t get beneath the surface of the Indian community. The casting of a familiar heavy from EastEnders as a cop and a comedian from ‘Allo ‘Allo as a barrister creates a certain unease.
There is, however, a peculiar poignancy in the presence as Kiranjit’s cellmate of Miranda Richardson, who made her unforgettable movie debut as Ruth Ellis in Dance With a Stranger.
