• Deepa Mehta is more than a filmmaker; she is a storyteller of human experience whose work continues to provoke thought, evoke emotion, and inspire dialogue, leaving a lasting impact on global cinema and on the way stories of identity, history, and justice are told.

Kalavanti Raja

Deepa Mehta is one of the most fearless and intellectually compelling filmmakers of contemporary world cinema, an Indo-Canadian director and screenwriter whose work cuts across borders of geography, culture, and ideology, engaging deeply with questions of identity, gender, history, and human dignity, and over more than three decades she has built a body of cinema that is at once provocative, poetic, and profoundly humane.

Early Life, Birth, and Family Background

Deepa Mehta was born on 1 January 1950 in Amritsar, India, into a Punjabi family whose ancestral roots lay in Lahore, now in Pakistan, and her life story begins in the shadow of the 1947 Partition of India; her father Satwinder, a film distributor and cinema owner, exposed her early to the world of cinema, while her mother Vimla nurtured the household, and growing up amid stories of migration, loss, and cultural displacement deeply shaped her sensibility, which later found powerful expression in her films, particularly in her exploration of Partition and identity.

Education and Intellectual Formation

She pursued higher education at the University of Delhi, earning a degree in philosophy, a discipline that significantly influenced her cinematic voice, giving her films intellectual depth and moral inquiry, and later after moving to Canada in the 1970s she studied filmmaking and television production at York University and the Ontario College of Art and Design, where her early work in documentaries and television helped refine her observational style and commitment to realism.

Migration and Life in Canada

Her migration to Toronto marked a turning point in her life, as Canada became both her home and her creative base, allowing her to explore themes that might have been constrained in South Asia, and her dual identity as both Indian and Canadian gave her cinema a distinctive global perspective, blending cultural authenticity with universal human concerns.

Marriages, Family, and Personal Life

In her personal life, Deepa Mehta was first married to Canadian filmmaker Paul Saltzman during the 1970s, and from this marriage was born her daughter Devyani Saltzman in 1979, who later became a respected arts curator, writer, and cultural leader, and after their separation Mehta remained in Canada, later marrying British-Canadian cinematographer Derek Cowie, who became both her life partner and a key collaborator in her filmmaking journey, contributing to several of her major works, while her daughter Devyani also engaged deeply with her mother’s work, even writing a reflective book about the making of Water and their relationship.

Early Career and Entry into Cinema

Deepa Mehta began her career in Canada producing documentaries and television programs, gradually developing her voice as a filmmaker, and her first major breakthrough came with Sam & Me in 1991, which explored immigrant identity and earned recognition at the Cannes Film Festival, establishing her as a serious filmmaker capable of blending humor with social commentary.

Major Works and Filmography (Elements Trilogy)

Her defining contribution to cinema came through her Elements Trilogy—Fire, Earth, and Water—where Fire explored a lesbian relationship within a traditional Indian household and sparked intense protests and debates, Earth portrayed the human cost of the Partition of India with emotional depth and historical sensitivity, and Water examined the lives of widows in orthodox Hindu society, facing violent opposition during its production yet ultimately receiving international acclaim and an Academy Award nomination.

Other Major Works

Beyond the trilogy, Mehta created a diverse body of work including Bollywood/Hollywood, a satirical take on cultural identity, Heaven on Earth, which dealt with domestic abuse among immigrant women, Midnight’s Children, an adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s complex novel, Anatomy of Violence, inspired by the Delhi gang rape case and examining the roots of violence, and Funny Boy, a coming-of-age story centered on LGBTQ identity in Sri Lanka, all of which demonstrate her consistent engagement with social justice and human experience.

Recent Work and Ideological Evolution

Her recent work, particularly the documentary I Am Sirat, reflects a clear evolution in her ideological approach, moving from direct confrontation toward a more nuanced and empathetic exploration of identity, gender, migration, and memory, where her cinema now functions less as protest and more as a reflective medium encouraging dialogue and understanding, while still addressing structural inequalities and historical trauma.

Writing Style and Cinematic Language

Deepa Mehta’s writing and filmmaking style is marked by emotional realism, strong character development, symbolic depth, and philosophical undertones, as she often writes or co-writes her films, blending literary sensibility with visual storytelling to create narratives that are both intimate and socially resonant.

Controversies and Courage

Her career has also been defined by significant controversies, particularly surrounding Fire, which faced attacks and protests from conservative groups for its depiction of same-sex relationships, and Water, whose filming in Varanasi was violently disrupted, forcing relocation to Sri Lanka, yet despite these challenges she remained steadfast in her commitment to truthful storytelling, demonstrating remarkable courage and integrity.

Recognition and Awards

Her contributions to cinema have been widely recognized, including receiving the Padma Shri from the Government of India in 1998, along with honors at major international film festivals such as Cannes and Toronto, and continued global recognition including a major honorary award at the Singapore International Film Festival in 2026.

Visit to Pakistan (2026)

In February 2026, Deepa Mehta visited Pakistan to attend the 14th Lahore Literary Festival held at the Alhamra Arts Council in Lahore, where she participated in discussions on cinema, culture, and storytelling alongside prominent writers and intellectuals, and during her visit she also explored locations connected to her family’s past, including Government College University where her father had studied, making the trip deeply emotional as she reflected on memory, loss, and belonging linked to Partition.

Connection with Pakistan in Her Work

Her connection with Pakistan is also reflected in her work, particularly in Earth, which portrays pre-Partition Lahore and highlights the shared cultural heritage and human experiences that transcend political borders, reinforcing her role as a storyteller of South Asian history and identity.

Professional Circle and Collaborations

Throughout her career, Deepa Mehta has been supported and influenced by a network of collaborators including Paul Saltzman and Derek Cowie, as well as literary figures such as Salman Rushdie and Bapsi Sidhwa, whose works and ideas have contributed to the richness of her cinematic narratives.

Language and Audience

Her films are made in multiple languages, primarily Hindi and English, with regional languages incorporated where necessary to maintain authenticity, allowing her to reach both local and global audiences while preserving cultural nuance.

Personality and Intellectual Character

As a personality, Deepa Mehta embodies courage, intellectual depth, and artistic integrity, combining a fearless approach to difficult subjects with a deeply human and empathetic perspective, and her work reflects not a desire to provoke but a commitment to honesty and truth.

Legacy and Importance

Her legacy lies in her ability to challenge social norms, give voice to marginalized communities, bridge cultures, and transform historical and personal pain into meaningful narratives, establishing her as a feminist voice, a chronicler of memory, and a philosopher of cinema.

My Words

Ultimately, Deepa Mehta is more than a filmmaker; she is a storyteller of human experience whose work continues to provoke thought, evoke emotion, and inspire dialogue, leaving a lasting impact on global cinema and on the way stories of identity, history, and justice are told.

Read: The Pen That Spoke for Women

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Kalavanti Raja is a social and political activist from Gambat, Khairpur Mirs, with 30 years of work on women’s rights, minorities, and social justice. She has served in Sindhiyani Tahreek and participated in national and international forums across Asia, Europe, and America.. She can be reached at kalavanti.raja@gmail.com

The post Deepa Mehta: Voice of Courage first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Souad Khalil | Libya

Cinema and poetry, two distinct artistic forms, share a remarkable relationship that transcends mere inspiration. While each maintains its unique language and medium, the cross-influences between them enrich both arts, creating new dimensions of expression. Poetry’s rhythm, imagery, and emotional depth have inspired filmmakers to infuse cinematic works with lyrical qualities, giving rise to the phenomenon known as poetic cinema. This study explores the intersection of these two art forms, examining how cinematic techniques can emulate the nuances of poetry and how poetry itself can inspire visual storytelling, ultimately highlighting the profound impact of poetic sensibilities on the cinematic experience.

When the arts influence each other, this does not mean that one art abandons its medium, or more precisely, its language that gives it its unique personality and independence. Influence occurs when any art form incorporates aspects of another art form into itself in order to deepen the artistic work and enhance its impact on the audience. Therefore, we see the influence of music on poetry, the influence of visual arts on visual media such as cinema and television, and the influence of poetry on the plastic arts, especially painting, as well as its influence on cinema, to the extent that critics have coined the term “poetic cinematic film.”

What is poetry? Is it an emotional or fleeting experience? Is it a spear plunged into the poet’s heart? Is it the creativity born from moments of observation, contemplation, reflection, and wonder? Or, in other words, as the English poet William Wordsworth states, is it the expression of experiences that the poet stores within and later re-expresses in moments of solitude and stillness? Some see poetry as a closeness to human experience, approached in a perspective different from that of others. The poet observes the same experiences that a screenwriter, novelist, or dramatist does, but presents them differently. The poet conveys these experiences with poetic characteristics such as meter, rhyme, color, or emotional qualities translated into the poetic work. These qualities can also exist in works belonging to other arts, which may create confusion; yet, we can say that the uniqueness in poetry lies in its construction. This structure gives it its individuality, authenticity, and powerful impact. While drama focuses on vertical development, for example from a minor initial situation to another, or from one feeling to another, poetry delves into the essence of the moment, attending to its qualities and nuances. Unlike drama, poetry does not focus on what happens, but on sensation and meaning.

Professor Mustafa Muharram, an Egyptian writer, wrote about visual poetry as a creative equivalent of cinema. In a short study, he adds that the poem creates visual or auditory forms of something invisible—the feeling, emotion, or metaphysical content of movement. The American poet and critic Ezra Pound sees the poetic image as a composition of emotion and intellect, grasped by the poet at a moment in time. He considers it a direct and rapid method to express ideas, similar in brevity, strength, and immediate impact to the cinematic image. Consequently, the great English poet and critic T.S. Eliot sees the strength of the Italian poet Dante in his ability to create clear visual images, since a poet’s task is not merely to arouse, but to embody something tangible before the reader’s eyes, engaging the senses. The most important aspect of good poetry, therefore, is the depiction of fine details, echoing Hume’s statement that the ultimate aim of poetry is precise and detailed description.

Dr. Magdy Wahba summarizes these views by defining poetry as the expression of strong feeling, deep influence, and a perspective on life that cannot be fully comprehended or expressed through mere logic or argument. The selection and musical arrangement of words expresses this through meter. Additionally, Wordsworth and his colleague, the great poet and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge, emphasized imaginative expression and mental imagery that evokes imagination or transforms reality into imagination and vice versa. This perspective has influenced both scientific literature and science fiction films.

It is possible for two authors to co-write a novel or a play, and many examples exist, but it is rare to find a poem co-authored by two poets. Uniqueness and subjectivity are key traits of poetic creativity. In contrast, cinematic production involves multiple creative talents such as the screenwriter, director, cinematographer, set designer, composer, and editor. Despite this difference, cinema often seeks to incorporate poetic qualities into its art, giving rise to poetic cinema, where images are used intentionally to generate ideas.

Poetic cinema possesses its own cinematic language. Camera movements and film rhythms reflect poetry, transforming reality into a poetic vision that reveals subtle aspects of the world. The poetic filmmaker captures fragments of the world and arranges them into aesthetic units that convey a cohesive artistic work. As the Italian aesthete Croce compared an artwork to a pile of pebbles, any minor change in the components creates a new, distinct whole. Every artistic work consists of cohesive impressions; any alteration in a part affects the whole.

Jean Cocteau is considered the father of poetic cinema, pioneering this field with films emphasizing poetry as a visual medium, such as “Blood of the Poet,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and “Orpheus.” Luis Buñuel collaborated with Salvador Dalí on “The Andalusian Heart.” Other notable filmmakers include W. Watson with “Lot’s Language in Sodom,” Maya Deren, James S. Brathen, Kenneth Anger, Curtis Harrington, and Mary Mankin, who focused on abstract cinema. These films often lacked dialogue, sometimes accompanied by music, reflecting the silent and black-and-white nature of dreams, as psychological studies affirm.

The essence of cinematic composition resembles the mechanics of dreaming, where overlapping images and symbolic cuts occur naturally. In cinema, images and words are sometimes superfluous, as many critics argue, especially concerning silent film, where words might indicate a failure of imagination by the screenwriter or viewer. Cinema conveys images larger than life, often unnecessary to explain with words. Unlike novels or poems, film communicates directly through perceivable images and sounds.

Poetry differs from prose in the selection and arrangement of words to create images that produce the intended meaning. Similarly, individual film shots have no meaning alone, but their sequence through editing conveys significance. Marcel Martin supports this by stating that an image alone has literal meaning but gains flexible meaning when juxtaposed with adjacent shots to deliver the director’s intent. The Kuleshov effect exemplifies this, where the same neutral face conveys different meanings depending on the sequence of shots.

In the 1920s, the cinematic poem emerged, aligned with Impressionism, focusing on visual concepts of urban and natural life and abstract patterns. Purely abstract cinema, akin to “painting in motion,” was pioneered by Canadian Norman McLaren, the Whitney brothers, and others. Other schools include poetic realism led by Robert Flaherty and John Grierson, dream sequences, hallucinations, and commercial fantasy films by Jean Vigo, emphasizing the visual. Avant-garde films like those of Sidney Peterson, Willard Maas, and Hideo experimented with poetic narratives. Soviet formalist cinema, exemplified by Sergei Eisenstein, emphasized pure cinematic poetry.

Despite some films adapting literary works, translating poetry into cinema is challenging. One cannot simply adapt a poem into a film unless it serves as a conceptual or thematic starting point. Unlike novels, where vertical narrative development aids cinematic adaptation, poetry requires a horizontal, poetic construction to achieve cinematic expression. The poem’s influence stems from its intrinsic characteristics, often described as its poetic quality. Works of cinema embodying these qualities can be deemed poetic films.

Poetic qualities are not exclusive to one art; they are present in any work characterized by poetic atmosphere, imaginative traits, and expressive depth. These qualities enhance aesthetic value and creative impact but are difficult to achieve. Studying the relationship between poetic and cinematic expression reveals how cinema has adopted aspects of poetry, particularly in montage, rhythm, conciseness, and imagery.

Roehr Manville asserts that contrast in poetry and cinema is the selection, rhythm, and presentation of images to achieve the intended audience effect. Poetry derives vitality from contrasting imagery, enhancing precision and enriching experience. Similarly, cinema, like poetry, employs rapid associative imagery to convey human experiences. Russian filmmakers, inspired by Griffith, developed montage techniques reflecting these principles.

Poetry’s influence extends to all arts, as each seeks to emulate poetry’s ability to engage the audience emotionally. Music, for example, communicates directly with the senses and may have predated language. Poetry, influenced by music, eventually influenced it in return, paralleling theater’s influence on cinema and vice versa. Caspiar notes that film studies often analyze cinema in light of other arts. Those with drama backgrounds highlight shared elements with theater, such as acting, direction, and dialogue.

Art historians view film composition through balance, proportion, rhythm, scale, and structure. Literary critics apply linguistic and symbolic analysis to films, although we note literary methods may not always suit cinematic evaluation. Joseph Bugez adds that film, as a form of expression, shares foundational traits with other media and incorporates composite elements from all visual arts: line, shape, volume, texture, light, shadow, three-dimensional space, movement, and rhythm. Film communicates through metaphor, analogy, and symbolism.

Arts continuously draw from one another to achieve aesthetic goals, enhancing each art form. Maya Deren, a pioneer of poetic cinema, states that cinema is a medium of extraordinary expressive capacity, sharing with visual arts its two-dimensional surface, with dance its treatment of coordinated movement, with theater its dramatic intensity, with music its rhythm, and with poetry its juxtaposition of images. Literature is engaged through abstraction conveyed via the soundtrack.

Poetry breathes life into other arts; cinema has incorporated poetic techniques, especially in montage, to determine rhythm and sequence. Contrasts, conciseness, rhythm, and poetic quality are core traits of poetry and simultaneously key characteristics of impactful cinema. A film’s construction mirrors the mind that creates it; a coherent, unified vision produces a poetic film, fulfilling the aesthetic purpose of art. Monroe states in his book “A Return to Beauty” that to articulate the aesthetic is one thing, but to describe its effect on us is another.

In conclusion, the dialogue between poetry and cinema demonstrates the boundless possibilities of artistic interaction. Poetic techniques—such as rhythm, imagery, and emotional resonance—enhance the visual and auditory language of film, while cinema, in turn, offers poetry a dynamic canvas to explore spatial and temporal dimensions. The result is a rich, multilayered experience where the essence of human emotion and imagination is conveyed with heightened intensity. Recognizing and studying these intersections not only deepens our appreciation of both art forms but also affirms that the ultimate aim of all artistic creation remains the pursuit of beauty, meaning, and emotional resonance.

Read: Drama and Theatre: Art in multiple forms

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Souad Khalil, hailing from Benghazi Libya, is a writer, poet, and translator. She has been writing on culture, literature and other general topics.

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Riyadh

The Bakr Al-Sheddi Theater in Riyadh witnessed a groundbreaking moment last night during the Golden Pen Award 2025, where ATOM Global, PYRAMEDIA Group, and ARTEKI Studio showcased the advanced capabilities of AI in cinematic content creation.

For the first time in the history of the award, 15 short films in 8K quality were presented—each a visual adaptation of a shortlisted novel, produced entirely using AI technology with no human actors. This unprecedented initiative, executed within just 50 hours at ARTEKI Studio, redefined the filmmaking landscape by blending machine learning, neural networks, and generative animation to transform literary masterpieces into stunning visual experiences.

Commenting on this collaboration, Dr. Nashwa Al Ruwaini, Founder and CEO of Pyramedia Group, stated:

“This partnership with ATOM Global and ARTEKI Studio marks a historic step in the evolution of the media industry. At Pyramedia, we strongly believe in integrating AI to develop innovative media content that serves various sectors. This collaboration represents the beginning of a new era in digital and modern content creation, and we are committed to staying at the forefront of these major transformations.

We extend our deepest gratitude to His Excellency Turki Al-Sheikh, Chairman of the General Entertainment Authority, for his support of this pioneering initiative. Special thanks also to Mr. Adnan Kayal, CEO of SELA, for his strong belief in the use of AI technology in media and entertainment.”

This initiative aligns with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, reinforcing the Kingdom’s commitment to becoming a global leader in digital media and AI-driven storytelling. As the world witnessed the immense potential of AI in cinema at this landmark event, it became clear that technology and creativity are merging in ways never seen before.

Published under the International Cooperation Protocol with Middle East Business | Life Magazine, Abu Dhabi

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Read: Abu Dhabi hosts ‘Made in Russia’ Festival on February 21

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Abu Dhabi

3rd edition of ‘Al Marmoom: Film in the Desert’ Festival, organized by Dubai Culture, is underway at Al Marmoom Desert Conservation Reserve. The festival kicked off on Friday January 12 and will continue till January 21, 2024.

Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairperson of Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) and Member of the Dubai Council, visited the third edition of the ‘Al Marmoom: Film in the Desert’ festival.

The festival, a key highlight of the Dubai Destinations winter campaign, seeks to empower the local cinema industry and encourage creative talents by supporting filmmakers, enabling them to showcase their works and share their visions, experiences, and knowledge with audiences. With events and activities held as part of the festival continuing until 21 January, over 70 films will be showcased, while over 30 workshops and more than ten diverse panel discussions and talks will be organized by Dubai Culture, witnessing the participation of distinguished speakers, directors, and specialists from the film industry.

Over 70 films will be showcased, while over 30 workshops and more than ten diverse panel discussions and talks will be organized

Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed affirmed the importance of Al Marmoom: Film in the Desert festival in enriching Dubai’s cultural and artistic movement. She also underscored its positive impact on the film sector, noting its valuable addition to the local film scene and its role in stimulating creatives and enhancing the sustainability of the film industry.

“The festival reflects Dubai’s modern identity and cultural and creative richness, representing an innovative platform for creative individuals that contributes to developing their skills and developing their creative tools. It provides seasoned and emerging creatives with opportunities to exchange artistic experiences and benefit from the latest methods and creative trends in this field, allowing for intellectual dialogue among different cultures to take place, highlighting our identity, traditions and local culture,” she said.

The festival, by means of its array of activities, supports the cultural and creative industries and enhances cultural tourism, enabling creatives to explore the distinctive opportunities that Dubai provides them in its mission to be a global center for the film industry, Her Highness added.

Art exhibitions

During her visit, Her Highness was briefed on the art exhibitions held alongside the festival and inspired by the history of cinema, including the ‘Cinematic Masterpieces’ exhibition showcasing a unique collection from His Excellency Mohammed Ahmed Al Murr, Chairman of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Library Foundation, and the ‘Stories at One with Nature’ exhibition that includes artworks and photographs by a group of talented young creatives from Akaas Visual Arts besides artworks by People of Determination from the Rashid Center for People of Determination.

The festival is being held under the theme ‘Stories at One with Nature’ and features a diverse program aimed at providing Emirati citizens and residents with an exceptional cultural experience. Attendees will gain access to more than 70 films from Emirati, GCC, Arab, and international filmmakers, of which 56 are part of the Al Marmoom Short-Film Competition, which will see a distinguished panel of experts from the UAE and regional film sector evaluate the entries.

In addition, several international and Arab films nominated for Academy Awards are being screened for the first time in the region, including the documentary film (Wild Dubai) produced by The Government of Dubai Media Office, and a collection of documentaries produced by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre, among others. The festival also features over 30 workshops addressing everything from the basics and techniques of preparing actors, methods for calculating film budgets, the difference between theatrical and cinematic scripts, photography, lighting, montage and coloring, documentary making, the elements of short and children’s films, to the importance of Arabic dubbing in international cinematic works, among other subjects. Over 10 diverse talks and panel discussions will also be organized, witnessing the participation of speakers, directors, and specialists from across the film industry who will address the challenges facing creative in the ‘the seventh art’ field as well as many other industry-related topics.

Musical and heritage performances

The festival will also feature musical and heritage performances highlighting the beauty of the Emirati culture and traditional crafts such as Al Talli and Al Khoos, reflecting the Authority’s commitment to showcasing Emirati traditions and enhancing their profile in artistic and creative activities throughout the emirate.

Published under the International Cooperation Protocol with Middle East Business | Life Magazine

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Meher Manda

The 1980s was a contentious decade for Hindi cinema. Only the truly brave treat it as the era of delightful so-bad-it’s-almost-good films. The masala of the 1970s gave way to a decade of too-muchness, with little subtlety or imagination. Truly, the decade saw the birth of camp on celluloid: in Rekha’s drag queen-inspired makeover of vindication in Khoon Bhari Maang (1988), in the blinding shimmer of Mithun Chakraborty’s pants in Disco Dancer (1982), and Sridevi’s serpentine metamorphosis in Nagina (1985). Amitabh Bachchan’s angry young man aged into a still angry older man whose shtick began to feel been there, seen that.

And then there was Party (1984) by filmmaker Govind Nihalani, which brought together reigning talents of Hindi parallel cinema and theater to share space at a house party in a single-set ensemble skit-like film. In one of the film’s most pivotal moments, emerging poet Bharat (K.K. Raina), fresh off the praise and attention from wealthy benefactors at the party, suggests that art and poetry need not be political. To this declaration, Avinash, a fiery journalist played with moral earnestness by Om Puri, says, “Art can never be separated from politics. If you observe closely, the government of every country uses art and media to establish its rule. If we want to bring fundamental changes, then we have to use our art and media as a weapon.”

And then, to conclude the dialogue with indefinite clarity, Avinash says, “If the artist is not politically committed, then his art is not relevant.”

In one swift stroke, Nihalani takes an axe to the meaningless drivel that the Hindi film industry had been churning out. Party, an essential film in the parallel cinema movement — a sub-genre inspired by New Wave cinema and which included realistic movies that subverted and challenged political, social, and cultural consciousness — showed the willingness of a select few filmmakers and actors to imagine Hindi cinema outside the limits of commercial, mainstream fare — cinema that was consistently unafraid of taking on the establishment.

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Courtesy: The Juggernaut

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