Split Wide Open

With Split Wide Open, a film that makes wonderful use of the wide screen, Benegal reveals the dark side of India’s hypocritical sexual morality. The title refers to a popular TV talk show that looks at viewers’ deep sexual secrets under the lamp. Protagonist KP sells water in the streets of Bombay. He rides round all day on his scooter and on the phone. When he has a conflict with his bosses in the ‘water Mafia’, he is beaten up brutally. Black, blue and robbed, he returns home to find out that his adopted sister Didi, who sold flowers by the city’s busy junctions, has disappeared. She has been kidnapped by Shiv, a potent and rich businessman and paedophile. Television and the reality of the streets of Bombay clash with each other when KP starts going out with Nandita, a beauty who grew up in England and who presents the TV talk show of the title. In their quest for Didi, KP and Nandita find out that lost innocence cannot be restored and that television is impotent in the face of the dangers and challenges of the city. Dev Benegal: ‘One country, two worlds. That is what India and being Indian means to me, even though it is not clear what this means exactly. Split Wide Open is about live TV, the hype of sex and the need to talk. About modern Indians who want to go out and form part of globalisation and other changes going on.’