Provoked- Battered Beauty

Aishwarya Rai is an enchantress. She is delightfully beautiful and in this movie they contrast scenes of the beautiful Aishwarya and that of the frightened and confused Aishwarya. The result-she still wins hands down on beauty.

Provoked is the true story of a Punjabi woman named Kiranjit Ahluwalia who leaves India to marry a London-based guy, only to be badly abused. She ends up in prison for murdering her abusive husband. But she fought back, first against her husband and then against the system.

Full of optimism and affection, newlywed Kiranjit Ahluwalia arrives at the doorstep of her new home and life with husband Deepak. However, the future offered only pain. The drunken Deepak beats her up for the first time and shows remorse. Beating her up gets easier for him on subsequent times. After 10 years of violence, a dazed Kiranjit could take no more. She resorts to a desperate act that kills Deepak.

She is convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Incarceration tests Kiranjit. While in prison, she developed an ally in the mischievous Ronnie (Miranda Richardson). Meanwhile activist with the Southall Black Sisters, Radha (Nandita Das) sprung into action to fight for an appeal for her.

The barrister (Rebecca Pidgeon) assigned to the case, with only limited resources could not make any headway with the appeal. Radha appealed for public support. Ronnie meanwhile contacted her estranged brother-in-law Lord Foster (Robbie Coltrane), an influential legal eagle to take on the appeal.

Kiranjit’s appeal gains momentum when Radha persuades a cop to change his knowingly false testimony that Kiranjit was in her right mind the night of the killing. Arguing passionately before the high court, Lord Foster moves the judge to change the fate of many battered women forever.

A moving story that will pull at your heartstrings. The prison scenes and the court proceedings are not only profound but truly educational.

One of the better Aishwarya movies after Bride and Prejudice.

Heartsong