/> Remember how Deepa Mehta's plans to shoot the plight of abandoned widows in Vrindavan and Varanasi were abandoned when radical political activists drove her out of the country?

Deepa finally made her film on the widows Water in Sri Lanka.

But her brother Dilip Mehta, a filmmaker in his own right who has just completed a comedy What's Cooking Stella with Seema Biswas in the lead, has put together a stunning documentary on the lives of widows from every walk of life in India.

Entitled The Forgotten Woman the documentary moves from the dying derelict widows of Varanasi to the the young widows of Kargil.

Says Dilip, "Water certainly galvaniized me to make this feature length documentary. The inspiration came entirely from the widows themselves. There were no obstacles whatsoever.

The only obstacle was my own state of mind which was emotionally churned each and every time I focused on the tragedy of the women - women who through no fault of theirs were marginalized by tradition, by society, and by their own families."

Dilip says he had no problems in getting these hapless abandoned woman to talk. "On the contrary. Every widow whom I filmed and who agreed to speak on camera was forthright and invariably there was an outpouring of their souls of emotions that were scarred, of feelings that were suppressed, of hopes and dreams that remained unfulfilled."

And now Dilip has put completed a comedy, to offset the mood of deep melancholy which The Forgotten Woman evoked within the filmmaker.

"The documentary for me was a mirror to my own soul, to my fears and to my own ignorance of the enormous social injustice. The feature drama on the other required delving into a different level of myself.

Although what's cooking, stella? Is a light comedy dealing with the disparity between the haves and the have nots and the inequality of the 'upstairs downstairs' syndrome, it still required inventiveness, sincerity and a lighter approach to life."

Dilip doesn't deny his sister's hand in his creativity. "Deepa's guiding hand has been present my entire life. For both my films she made suggestions - some were taken and some were not. Since her guidance comes with deep sincerity and good intention it is never sticks in the throat. I consider myself fortunate."