Karen Hollinger says in the text Feminist Film Studies, “Mehta insisted that Fire is not really about lesbianism, but about women’s need to be able to make their own choices and express their desires,” (Hollinger 220). Radha has been raised in the traditions of a conservative Indian woman. She treats her husband as though he rules over her. She takes care of her husband and her husband’s mother, Biji. Radha spends her days cooking, cleaning, shopping, and pleasing her husband. Women in Radha’s culture are raised to meet a man’s needs and desires, not their own. Radha feels guilty that she cannot have children, because that is what a woman is expected to do in the Indian culture. It is apparent in the film Fire that she has never been as close