WATER 中文

Director: Deepa Mehta

Cast: Sarala, Seema Biswas, Lisa Ray

Duration: 117 minutes

There was a great deal of controversy in India about the making of Water. Authorities and popular movements condemned the director for her alleged attack on customs, especially concerning widows. The result was that this Indian story was actually filmed in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan locations, especially the river, are beautifully photographed. And there is an impressive finale scene at a railway station during a brief stopover and prayer by Mahatma Gandhi.

Water certainly does attack what seem to be inhuman customs concerning the lives of widows and their status and rights in India. Statistics are offered at the end of the film which suggest that in many areas, abuses are still rife. However, the setting of this story is 1938, the years before the end of British rule and of partition (which was so vividly filmed in Deepa Mehta’s fine film, Earth).

The initial focus is on a little girl, Chuiya (Sarala, eight at the time of filming) who is asked whether she remembers her marriage. She doesn’t - and her family then inform her that she is a widow and that the scriptures of Manu require widows to have their heads shaved, wear white and live in seclusion in a compound together where they have to eke out a living or beg. Seeing this through the frightened and sad child’s eyes makes the widows’ plight seem even more dreadful. We then see the various women, many of whom have spent decades secluded and frustrated, especially the big and imperious woman in charge.

There are two other women at the centre of the film. One is a devout woman, Gyanvati (Seema Biswas), who accepts her lot with faith, believing that there must be some meaning in her life. She is kind, generous and is the saviour for Chuyia, an admirable woman. The other is a young and beautiful woman, Kalyani (Lisa Ray), bewildered by her fate. By chance, a young man (John Abrahams) encounters her and Chuyia and he falls in love with her. Family, friends and, especially his father, who has his own secrets, advise him against marriage. The head of the widows’ community who actually lends out women for procurers is also against the marriage.

The playing out of this romance as well as the fate of the little girl makes for very moving and upsetting drama.

Comments in the background throughout the film remind us of the political situation and the role of Gandhi who is released from prison by the British.

Toronto-based Deepa Mehta also tackled difficult female and feminist issues in her previous film, Fire. Here she makes an effective and moving plea for oppressed women in society.