Of course, like any normal not elderly person, I knew for sure, it will be “a sore in the bum” to sit through this movie at a stretch in the theatre. That is why I resisted myself seeing it in the Movie Halls and waited for the DVD; and I got my copy few days back. It took me about 3 takes to finish the movie. It is NOT that the movie is bad, it is just that Award winning movies tends to drag a bit and you need good patience to enjoy the movie. So, the best option is to have the DVD and watch at my own leisure. Water is a superb movie from Deepa Mehta, who have given us the likes of Fire, 1947-Earth, Bollywood/Hollywood.
Water, though set on an Indian context of Hinduisim on the eve of India’s Independence somewhere in 1938, it is not from Bollywood. It is produced by David Hamilton, Music by Mychael Danna and the Hindi songs by A.R. Rahman. Water was released during November, 2005. However, it is only on the 9th March, 2007 that Water was released in India. The movie runs for almost 2 hours. I enjoyed the Movie and yet to see the special features, etc from the DVD.
Water was also the first non-English non-French movie to open at the Toronto International Film Festival. The movie was nominated the best foreign-language Oscar nomination during January, 2007. It also got the Golden Kinnaree Award at Bangkok International Film Festival (2006) for Best Film and the Silver Mirror Award at Festival Films from the South in Oslo (2006) for Best Film.
Water shows the cruelties of Hinduism against widows, specially during the earlier days in India. Water is also treated as one of the holiest element in the Hindu religion. Set in pre-Independence India, in 1938, the movie takes place in the holy city of Vanarasi (INDIA) focussing more specifically about the plight of the widows of a “Widows Ashram”. According to the Hindu tradition, the marriage of young girls to older men was commonplace and when the old man died, the widow would be forced to spend the rest of her life in the “Widow Ashram”, a place for widows to make amends for the sins form their previous life that might have supposedly caused the death of her husband. They were forced into ritual prostitution. They are sometimes referred to as a Veshya.
Water starts off with Chuyia (played by a Sri-Lankan girl - Sarala) who is just about 7 or 8 years old and have lost her husband. Her parents dropped her off to the Widow Ashram to waste off her entire life in renunciation. In the movie, this Ashram was managed by Madhumati, a fat old lady and she also manages the clients for prostitution business. Shakuntala (Seema Biswas of the Phoolan Devi fame) is one widow to reckon with. She is one woman that even the chief Madhumati would ignore and not confront her. Quiet and reserved, Shakuntala is caught between her hatred of being a widow and her fear of not being one. Shakuntala is a very devout Hindu who seeks the counsel of Sadananda, a gentle-looking priest in his late forties who recites the scriptures to the pilgrims who throng the ghats of the holy city. Kalyani (played by Lisa Ray) is one the beautiful women in the Ashram and is forced into prostitution to earn for the Ashram.
The humdrum life of Kalyani took a turn when Narayan (John Abraham) comes into her life. Narayan is a young upper class gentleman who follows the freedom movement of Mahatma Gandhi at that time. Narayan likes Kalyani and vice versa but Kalyani resists, in deference to tradition and ask him to go away as it is a sin to even talk to her. However, they fell in love and decided to run away, get married.
Out of sheer mistake, one day, Chuyia blurted out the secret marriage escape plan of the two love couples to Madhumati. Well, hell freezes over and a melee followed and Kalyani somehow manages to escape with the help of the rebellious Shakuntala. Narayan took Kalyani to his parents’ house but Kalyani recognized the house as that of one of her client. She pleaded to turn the boat around and Kalyani downs herself. The little girl Chuyia replaced her as the new prostitute for Narayan’s father. Narayan leaves his father’s house to join the Mahatma in his freedom movement. Shakuntala helped Chuyia this time by asking Narayan to take Chuyia along to be put under the care of the Mahatma.
Due to opposition from the Hindu community during the shooting of Water at the original location of Varanasi, Deepa Mehta shifted to Sri Lanka to shoot the movie. She renew the cast too. Chuyia, played by eight year old Sarala is Sri Lankan, she neither knows Hindi nor English. So, Deepa had to give her directions via a Sinhalese interpreter.
This is a must-see movie. Even if you are not Indian or do not know Hindi, you should see the plight of a group of women and how they are treated, how some society and religion were so crude. We all know that every religion has their own bad points, this movie is one that bring out a bad patch in Hinduism of those days. The plight of these women is perhaps one of the major reason why Mahatma Gandhi abolished “Sati” and allowed widow re-marriage in the Hindu religion after India’s Independence.
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