Myth and Patriarchy in Deepa Mehta's Heaven on Earth

This article analyses how Heaven on Earth (2008) uses Indian mythology to expose the reality of culturally driven violence against Sikh Punjabi women in Canada, occurring as a result of transnational marriages between diaspora-based Non-Resident Indian (hereafter NRI) men and Sikh Punjabi women. Referring to Bruce Lincoln’s theory of myth as ideology, I argue that the film explores how some of these women have experienced marginalisation and how a discourse of abuse can be challenged through myth.