Provoked

All members of the public are invited to the screening of Provoked: A True Story today from 5.30 pm at the Indian Culture Centre, New Haven, Bel Air.

Provoked tells the true story of Kiranjit Ahluwalia (Aishwarya Rai), a 19-year-old Punjabi girl living with her domineering sisters and their husbands in a small village in Punjab, India. Kiran’s head is filled with dreams of attending university, travelling, seeing the world. Marriage is the last thing on her mind. But then Deepak (Naveen Andrews) arrives. A friend of the family, he is handsome, charming, and best of all, unmarried! After a whirlwind courtship, they marry and relocate to Deepak’s home in a suburb of London.

But what started as a storybook romance soon descends into a terrifying nightmare. Cut off from her family and friends back home, Kiran suffers a 10-year campaign of abuse (both physical and mental) at the hands of the man she loves, until the balmy summer night when she decides to strike back. A splash of petrol on his sleeping figure, a burning candle, and her nightmare is finally over. Or so she believes. Unable to claim self defence due to the nature of her crime, she is convicted of murder, and sent to serve a life sentence behind the walls of Mullwood Hall Prison. She is befriended by Ronnie (Miranda Richardson), another woman jailed for striking back at her husband. Here, behind these walls, Kiran experiences true freedom for the first time in her young life.

Her case was subsequently reviewed with the support of the Southall Black Sisters, an NGO which fights against domestic violence. She was released in 1992 on a reduced charge after 3½ years in prison.

Admission is free.