由加籍印裔女导演迪帕．梅塔执导，曾获芝加哥国际影展奖。因内容表现在打破传统的 “性禁锢"方面，所以公映时竟触发狂潮，成为众矢之的，导演本人亦遭受恐吓。剧情介绍新德里一个年轻美貌姑娘嫁入中产店主家庭后，...

由加籍印裔女导演迪帕．梅塔执导，曾获芝加哥国际影展奖。因内容表现在打破传统的 “性禁锢方面，所以公映时竟触发狂潮，成为众矢之的，导演本人亦遭受恐吓。剧情介绍新德里一个年轻美貌姑娘嫁入中产店主家庭后，因丈夫沉缅于香港功夫，并迷恋于中国艳女而受到冷落。而不育的大嫂亦因丈夫参与 “灵修倍感寂寞，两人同病相怜遂成闺中好友，并发展成床上鸳鸯。后来东窗事发，迫使两人离家出走。该片在印度来讲，内容较为惹火，但比起香港片，似乎仍显平谈，而且剧情颇为噱头，算不上佳作。不过对女性情欲描写极为细致，有一定的文艺剧情趣味。该片还入选香港 “印度多面睇十大印度影片。　　Ashok (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) runs a family business that sells takeout food and which also has a video rental store at the side. Ashok's extended family includes his wife Radha (Shabana Azmi), his brother Jatin (Javed Jaffrey), their ailing mother Biji (Kushal Rekhi) and their manservant Mundu (Ranjit Chowdhry), all living under the same roof. Jatin, at the insistence of Ashok and their mother, Biji, agrees to marry the beautiful Sita (Nandita Das) in an arranged marriage, although he is actually in love with Julie (Alice Poon), a Chinese-Indian. At first glance, you see a happy middle-class family going through the normal paces of everyday life. However, as the layers are slowly peeled back, we find a simmering cauldron of discontent within the family, with almost every family member living a lie. Both marriages in the family turn out to be emotionally empty, without love or passion. While Ashok is an ascetic who has taken a vow of celibacy, Jatin is a handsome ladies' man who is still openly seeing Julie even after his marriage to Sita. Ashok has pledged his total devotion to a religious holy man, a swami, in order to purge his life of worldly desires and temptations. Radha, bound by her sense of duty to her husband, agrees to go along with his wishes. As you can imagine, with both husbands ignoring their spouses' emotional and sexual needs (albeit with reasons that are totally opposite from each other), it is only a matter of time before Radha and Sita look to one another for comfort and to satisfy their own passions. In this environment, it is only natural that Sita and Radha become fast friends, and, in time, much more than that. But their love is not without its share of painful obstacles.

20世纪30年代的印度，妇女没有人权和自由，她们不过是作为男性的附庸而存在。8岁的小女孩楚娅（Sarala 饰）早早变成了寡妇，她只能被迫剃掉头发，在一个专门为寡妇准备的庭院中度过余下的漫长人生。在这个院子里，生活着恍如天上仙子的年轻女性，也有黄土半埋的枯槁老人，更有处心积虑赚取不义之财的刁蛮之妇。　　楚娅的明天会怎样？苦命女人的未来又将如何？　　本片为印度女导演迪帕•梅赫塔（Deepa Mehta）“要素三部曲”的第三部，分别荣获2006年曼谷国际电影节最佳影片；2006年加拿大吉尼金像奖最佳摄影、最佳配乐和最佳女主角（Seema Biswas）三项大奖；2006年美国国家影评奖最佳表现奖；2005年瓦雅多丽国际电影节青年评委会大奖；2006年温哥华影评人协会奖最佳女主角（Lisa Ray）和最佳导演奖；2007年青年艺术家奖最佳青年演员奖（Sarala）。