A new Indian movie has encountered vigorous, even violent opposition in that country. Reports of this protest have focused on the plot line of the film, but the issues involved -- for both detractors and defenders -- are far more profound. PNS commentator Sandip Roy-Chowdhury is a film critic and contributing editor at "India Currents," a Bay Area magazine.

When the film "Fire" opened in India in early December, supporters of the Shiv Sena party stormed into theaters in Mumbai (Bombay) and Delhi, broke window panes, burned posters and forced screenings to be canceled.

The Chief Minister of Maharashtra state condoned the vandalism adding "I am personally against such forms of art." Before long, the film which had passed the censor board with an Adults certificate, was sent back for "reconsideration."

The controversy is not surprising. The film has at its core a sexual relationship that blooms between two neglected sisters-in-law in a middle-class Delhi household. It takes on a few other sacred cows along the way -- like how religion applies one standard for men and another for women.

As the filmmaker, Deepa Mehta, points out "Fire" is not so much about lesbianism as it is about choice. That is probably even scarier for India's self-appointed guardians of public morality.

If women can choose to love other women instead of their husbands, there's no telling what else they could choose. After all one character in the film does say that duty is an over-rated concept.

Sandeep Kherdekar of the Patit Pavan Sangathan, a social and political group affiliated with Hindu organizations, said, "The movie is being banned to protect society and our own daughters, wives and sisters from the Western concept of lesbianism." As if one film would send droves of Indian "daughters, wives and sisters" headlong into lesbianism.

Clearly, refusing to talk about homosexuality does not make it disappear. If an idea could be made to disappear by just banning it, India would still be under British rule today.

In India, books like D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover were once routinely banned as "obscene." In the 1940s, author Ismat Chughtai was charged with obscenity for writing a short story about lesbianism in an upper class Muslim household.

Lately, books and films are more likely to run into problems on grounds of offending religious sentiment (like Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses or the Mani Ratnam film "Bombay" where a Muslim girl elopes with a Hindu boy).

Parties like the Shiv Sena, which is Hindu and right wing, have been quick to pounce on a double standard. Those who rally to the defense of "Fire," they point out, were largely silent when it came to Rushdie or "Bombay." In other words, censorship seems to be acceptable when it is done to appease the Muslim minority but it is painted as bullying when Hindu sentiments are involved.

Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray has injected the Hindu-Muslim issue into "Fire" by claiming he would accept the film if the characters' had Muslim rather than Hindu names. In fact, some of those featured in "Fire" who have petitioned the Supreme Court to protect the film are Muslim, like actor Dilip Kumar and the lead actress Shabana Azmi -- who is held up triumphantly by the Shiv Sena as evidence of the film's supposed agenda to denigrate Indian (read Hindu) culture. Some have even demanded that Azmi resign as a member of parliament for having acted in such a film

Defenders of the film have been writing articles on its merits -- it has won 14 international awards -- and protesting the undemocratic strong-arm tactics by a minority.

But these protests, however well-intentioned, can also set a risky precedent. It is dangerous to tie freedom of expression with awards and polls. The point is that the film was cleared by the Censor Board to run in the theaters. The point is that viewers should decide whether or not to see the film. The point is that Indian "daughters, wives and sisters" are quite capable of making up their own minds about what they should or should not see and don't need the likes of the Shiv Sena to do it for them. The point is freedom of expression. Period. Not freedom of expression for just an award-winning sensitive film.

Whether the Indian public will get a chance to see "Fire" depends on the Censor Board and the Supreme Court. Meanwhile it is certainly the hottest film in India these days, stirring debate even in Parliament. In its ham-handed way the Shiv Sena has succeeded in doing what all gay groups have struggled to do for years - make lesbian and gay issues front-page news.