The New Nation - Internet Edition

Two striking cinematic essays are providing viewers at the 33rd Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) lucid glimpses of two different faces of Indian woman.

One of them is based on a real personality while the other is a dramatised version of a true-life incident.

Toronto-based Deepa Mehta's Indo-Canadian production, Heaven On Earth, inspired by life of a victim of domestic violence, narrates the tale of Chand Grewal ( Preity Zinta ), a simple, God-fearing Ludhiana girl who moves to Brampton only to find herself hopelessly trapped in an abusive, loveless marriage.

First-time Australian filmmaker Megan Doneman's 'Yes Madam, Sir,' a documentary about the career of an Indian super cop Kiran Bedi, highlights a courageous woman who fought against odds.

'Heaven on Earth', one more addition to the series of Mehta-directed films that lay bare truths about the status of women in India, is an expanded and stylised version of a documentary film that the director had made a year ago about Punjabi women who moved to Toronto after marriage and ran into a violent husband and unsupportive in-laws.

Mehta's directorial flourishes, marked by a masterly mix of the real and the imaginary, raise an oft-repeated narrative to a completely different level.

- Agency