Custom,
whether based on norms of social etiquette or rules of religious
authorities, can empower the few and make life miserable for
the many. The Indian film The Fire and the Rain
(Agni Varsha), directed by Arjun Sajnani, presents
a case in point. The story is an adaptation of Girish Karnad's
play based upon "The Myth of Yavakr" from the Mahabharata,
a Sanskrit epic that consists of legends from about 500 BCE
that were brought into a unified text by 350 CE. The story
occurs in a small region of India long ago that has experienced
a lack of rain for ten years; the set, the ruins of Hampi,
suggests that the time is the thirteenth century. The high
priest of the temple, Paravasu (played by Jackie Shroff),
is eager to perform a ceremony to bring rain when a drama
troupe arrives in town, pleading for an opportunity to put
on a play that might also summon rain from the heavens. Meanwhile,
Paravasu's younger brother Aravasu (played by Milind Soman)
is romancing Nittilai (played by Sonali Kulkarni). Aravasu
is a Brahmin, but Nittilai is of a lower caste, and the unlikely
pairing requires approval from the elders. Paravasu has marital
problems of his own, having abandoned his spouse Vishakha
(played by Taveena Tandon), who is establishing a liaison
with Yavakri (played by Nagarajuna Prabhudeva), Paravasu's
first cousin. Yavakri, who has just returned from ten years
of meditation, believes that Paravasu is unfit to be the high
priest. Blind Raibhya (played by Mohan Agashe), the father
of both Paravasu and Aravasu, summons a demon to kill Yavakri,
who is upsetting the tranquility of the region with his dissension.
Soon, Paravasu reacts by slaying his father and then ordering
Aravasu to handle the cremation immediately. But that is the
day when Nittilai's father has summoned the villagers to meet
Aravasu in order to approve of their marriage. Because cremation
duties and other family matters delay Aravasu's arrival in
Nittilai's village, her father loses patience and hands her
off in marriage to the first volunteer. When Aravasu finally
arrives, marriage preparations are irreversibly underway.
After the marriage, Nittilai meets Aravasu outside the village
and urges him to return to his brother Paravasu. However,
when Aravasu does so, Paravasu accuses him of murdering his
father, orders him ejected from the temple, and he ends up
near death in an encampment of poor people. On hearing of
Aravasu's plight, Nittalai abandons her husband to comfort
Aravasu, who is then nursed back to health by the leader of
the drama troupe with Nittalai by his side. When Aravasu regains
his strength, he performs in a play wearing a mask in front
of Paravasu, the priests, and the villagers. At a dramatic
point in the play, Aravasu deviates from the script to burn
down the temple, killing Paravasu, while villagers from Nittilai
find her in the audience and slay her. With dying Nittilai
in Aravasu's arms, the god Indra (played by Amitabh Bachchan)
suddenly appears, offering to grant Aravasu a single wish.
Although he could ask for rain, Aravasu clearly wants Nittalai
alive. Indra says that such a wish would reverse time, but
ultimately the same events would repeat. Then the demon who
killed Yavakri appears, begging Aravasu to ask Indra for his
release from a condition in which he can neither live normally
nor die peacefully. Aravasu then asks Indra for the demon's
freedom, reasoning that Nittilai would have made the same
decision. Rain then falls in abundance. The Fire
and the Rain is not only a classic story but
also a statement to contemporary Indians about the adverse
consequences of following custom blindly. Presumably, filmviewers
in India will learn the lesson that caste snobbery is harmful,
women should be liberated to save men from their own folly,
and that marriages should be based on love rather than arranged
by relatives for mutual aggrandizement. MH
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