Circle of Jag
by: Amit Roy
- mid-day.com
Jagmohan Mundhra is just about to start shooting Provoked, based on the story of Kiranjit Ahluwalia, a Sikh woman who was sent to prison for 10 years in Britain for the manslaughter of her abusive husband, Dipak.
I know something about Kiranjit’s landmark case (which changed the law and made it more understanding towards women who kill after suffering years of domestic violence) because when she was released in September 1992, after serving three years of her sentence, I was the first one to interview her.
Jag has got a great cast for his film, which is based on Rahila Gupta’s Circle of Light, with Aishwarya Rai playing Kiranjit. Nandita Das, Naveen Andrews (as Dipak), Robbie Coltrane (as the lawyer), Miranda Richardson and Rebecca Pidgeon are among the others in what should be a worthy successor to Jag’s Bawandar.
I remember Kiranjit telling me of her mixed emotions after the death of her husband. She felt she was at last free. “I also felt remorse because I had robbed my two sons of their father,” she pondered.
Nandita has said she and Ash have something in common. “I will be a jury member at Cannes this year — Ash was a jury member two years ago,” she told Jag, who feels he is a born-again serious film director.
