Star cast :Aishwarya Rai, Naveen Andrews, Miranda Richardson, Ray Panthaki, Nandita Das, Robbie Coltrane, Raji James, Leena Dhingra, Claire Louise Amias, Wendy Albiston, Lorraine Bruce, Ashwani Chopra, Karen Shenaz David, Maxine Finch, Nicholas Irons, Judith Jacob, Steve McFadden, Deborah Moore, Rebecca Pidgeon, Marsha Rice, Faizaan Shurai, Guy Siner, Julie T Wallace

Music :A R Rahman
Producer :Sunanda Murali Manohar
Director :Jagmohan Mundhra

The unknown figure is now revealed. It's a nervously shaking Kiranjit (played by Aishwarya Rai [ Images ]). The man going up in flames is her husband, Deepak (Naveen Andrews, playing the bad guy so effectively you want to strangle him).

A series of recurring flashbacks enlighten us about what really happened.

Originally from Punjab [ Images ], Kiranjit comes to England [ Images ] after marrying Deepak. Docile and submissive, Kiranjit meekly puts up with the increasing atrocities of her alcoholic other half. The vile man beats, cheats, mistreats and abuses his wife physically, sexually and verbally. 

In an interview, the real Ahluwalia stated her husband was often nice but suffered from a 'split personality'. In the film, this trait is never communicated. Deepak comes across as a you-know-what of the first order from start to finish.
 
In the film, the year is 1989. And Kiranjit is put behind bars for suspected murder. The trial fails to establish a prolonged background of domestic violence and the jury declares her guilty. Sentenced to life imprisonment, Kiranjit gears up for life in the cell, where she finds a protective sympathetic in her feisty and affluent inmate, Veronica Scott (a delightful, effortlessly endearing Miranda Richardson). Booked for stabbing her husband, Veronica is shown to have remarkable influence in and outside prison.