Dir: Jag Mundhra

Starring: Aishwarya Rai, Naveen Andrews, Robbie Coltrane

Back in 1989, a Punjabi woman with two children set fire to her husband while he was asleep and was charged with murder when he died from his burns. It transpired that she had endured ten years of abuse at the hands of her husband and, through rallying, the work of non-profit organisations and, quite frankly, fate, her appeal was allowed and her conviction was changed to manslaughter.

The ordeal of Kiranjit Ahluwalia caused uproar at the beginning of the 90s; the case of R v Ahluwalia changed British law forever. The film rather cleverly attempts to weave the two together, creating a passionate blend of personal emotion and legal drama. Based on Ahluwalia’s autobiography, it is – as it should be – a rather sombre version of events. The combination of love and friendship never fail to tug at the heartstrings, and director Jag Mundhra rather cleverly uses this to portray the reality of his characters’ emotions.

The starry cast, consisting of Bollywood queen Aishwarya Rai in the lead role and prolific British actor Naveen Andrews as her husband, Deepak, work well together and the chemistry between Rai and her cellmate Miranda Richardson – who plays a jailed mother with great conviction – is top-notch. Robbie Coltrane provides a treat with his appearance halfway through the film despite having less than twenty minutes screen time.

The issues aside from the case involve a rather racist, corrupt view of the late 80s, in terms of police and prison services, though this weakens towards the end of the film and justice and principle shine through, as they always do. Despite the film being based on a true story, thus the outcome known to many, the director manages to construct a good, thought-provoking and eye-opening film to the bigger picture; that of beaten wives, police corruption and everyday perjury.

On the whole though, the film works as a story for those who have no background of the case of Ahluwalia, therefore law students are advised to steer clear when in search of some gripping entertainment, as it may serve as nothing more than revision.

However, if for nothing else, it is worth seeing just to see Rai on screen, as beautiful as ever, and to watch Naveen Andrews take on a different, antagonistic character, totally contradictory to that of Sayid Jarrah, a role most of us are very used to seeing him handle in Lost.    

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