There is a Stella in every Indian household: Dilip Mehta

Renowned photojournalist-turned director Dilip Mehta, whose feature debut Cooking With Stella premieres today at the 34th Toronto International film festival, says that his movie is "a metaphor for social disparity" in India.
    
Mehta social satires places the uniquely Indian phenomenon of household helps and their relationship with their employers in a cross-cultural context.

"It isn't something that we should be proud of, but it is a fact that there is a Stella in every Indian household. The film uses cooking as a metaphor for social disparity," Mehta said.
    
The 57-year-old photographer, who has over the years tracked the Gandhi family, the effects of Bhopal gas tragedy and Michael Jackson, is not worried about the response to his debut film.

"I am not an excitable person. In any case, I don't think film direction is rocket science," he says.

When asked about his sister writer-director Deepa Mehta, the filmmaker says, "At one point I told Deepa that we should be like the Coen brothers, making films together.

"She said that I was mad, and that we would fight all the time. So we decided we will not go beyond co-writing. When the film was being written, she was in Toronto and I was in Delhi. So we stayed out of each other's path," he says.

But he is quick to add that Deepa Mehta was around all through the shoot. "What a mentor to have," he adds. 

Mehta, who has been actively associated with several of his sister's films --Water and Heaven on Earth as either creative producer or production designer, has one  feature length documentary, The Forgotten Woman, to his credit.

Inspired by Deepa's Oscar-nominated movie Water, the documentary deals with the plight of Indian widows.

Mehta, a Canadian citizen for three decades although he spends much of his time in New Delhi, is an insider on both sides of the cultural divide.

"Canadians truly believe in egalitarianism and, therefore, it is bound to be difficult for them to grasp the dynamics of the master-servant relationship," he says.

"'But Cooking With Stella' isn't really a drab socio- political tract. We were clear about one thing from the very outset: we did not want to pontificate. We wanted the film to be an iron fist in velvet gloves," he adds.

The film, which stars Lisa Ray, Don Mc Kellar, Seema Biswas and Shriya Saran, is a warm-hearted social satire that factors generous doses of good humour and wry wit into the narrative broth.

"The idea is to ensure that audiences have a hearty laugh even as they are provoked to think as they watch the film," Mehta says.

He is especially excited about the "jugalbandi" that Indian actress Seema Biswas, playing a devout Christian housekeeper who spirits away portions of the diplomatic household pantry to supplement her income, and Canadian actor Don McKellar, as a stay-at-home husband of a career diplomat, strike up.