Water

Toronto-based Indian director Deepa Mehta has always been humble about the impact her movies may have on Indian society, but I doubt few people could have walked out of her newest movie Water without feeling moved.

Set in the 1930s against the backdrop of Ghandi’s struggle to free India from British colonial rule, the film explores a topic that is Mehta’s favorite and has always been close to her heart – unfair treatment of women in a men-dominated society. In Water, Mehta shows us a group of widows forced to live in an ashram (an Indian widow house). With three central characters at different stages of widowhood, Mehta draws a poetically touching and heartbreakingly beautiful picture on a broad canvas. Mehta and cinematographer Giles Nuttgens infuse the movie with bright colors and sumptuous lights to display a country that is surreally gorgeous with some hidden ugliness underneath the surface. Even though the story tells of a human tragedy, Mehta and Nuttgens constantly show us a human spirit that is impossible to be stifled. These widows may be ostracized by society, but they have formed close friendships among themselves and tried to enjoy the little pleasures life has to offer them. In all the running scenes, Nuttgens’s dizzying camera movements make the audience feel like they were running with the characters and there is a sense of exhilarating freedom in those motions.

In the movie, Chuyia (played by Sarala) is a newly widowed child. Even though she is not quite 10 years old and does not even remember getting married, her husband’s death has made her a widow, a term she only vaguely understands. Sarala plays Chuyia with a fiery attitude and child innocence. Her Chuyia is a playful, stubborn and sweet little girl forced to grow up fast. The widow whom Chuyia enjoys playing with is Kalyani (played by Lisa Ray), a beautiful young widow coerced into prostitution to support the ashram. Ray may be one of the most beautiful actresses in modern cinema and her Kalyani is so stunningly ravishing that a simple look or smile could easily break the audience’s heart. Although Kalyani is uneducated and sells her body for a living, Ray gives her dignity and nobility far above those “gentry” she serves. However, what touches me the most is Seema Biswas’ Shakuntala, the rock among all the widows. Shakuntala is a devout middle-aged widow who accepts her fate dutifully. She helps the head widow run the ashram with a fair hand, but all the unfairness around her compels her to question her faith. Biswas imbues Shakuntala with her quiet but strong presence; she invests the character with real emotions and superb acting skills.

Although Water is not from Bollywood mass product line, there are moments of Bollywood in the movie. The entire love story between Kalyani and her suitor Narayan (played by John Abraham) is very Bollywood-ish – the boy and the girl fall in love at first sight, and they are also unbelievably photogenic on screen. Almost all the musical numbers in the movie have to do with Kalyani and Narayan’s courtship. Mehta smartly chooses not to do usual Bollywood song-and-dance number; instead all the songs are played in the background while characters simply move to the rhythm of the music with help of editing rather than doing any real dancing. It gives the movie a more realistically romantic ambience. Mychael Danna’s haunting music score runs through the entire movie, but it is not intruding and does not overwhelm the storytelling.

Mehta said in interviews that she is someone who lives for making movies, not preaching messages; however, her movie speaks loudly for itself through the story and images. Even though the movie is about the widows almost 70 years ago, Mehta still faced stiff resistance and protests from religious extremists and was forced to film the entire movie in Sri Lanka. In the movie, the widows constantly use water to cleanse their bodies and sins, but it begs us to question who may really need to wash away their sins. In interviews, Mehta expressed that “the idea of ‘Water’ isn’t for you to feel sorry for someone halfway across the world. It’s for you to look in your own backyard.” Water has certainly succeeded in making me do so.

With Water, Mehta has completed her Fire-Earth-Water trilogy. After watching Water, I cannot wait to check out both Fire and Earth.