Sunday, September 24, 2006

Movie: Water


WATER Directed by Deepa Mehta
Starring: Lisa Ray, Seema Biswas, John Abraham, Sarala


This movie was a masterpiece from the beginning to end I was pulled into it and felt it all in my heart. The basic break down of the flick is this….
It’s set in the 1930’s the film tells the story of eight-year old Chuyia (Sarala, who is absolutely fantastic and magical in the role) , whose husband dies before she even meets him. One night her father awakens the little girl to tell her that her husband died the little girl was obviously so young when they married her off she doesn’t even remember getting married.

Her parents shave her head and whisk her away to a house of widows where the women sleep on the ground and beg in the streets to earn their puny portion of rice. Chuyia, feisty and resilient, comes into this world like a ray of light, and soon the women are rethinking their mute acceptance of their fate. Her closest friend and ally is the lovely Kalyani, and soon a forbidden romance begins to develop between Kalyani (Lisa Ray) and Narayana ( John Abraham), a young Brahmin man who, following the teachings of Gandhi, has denounced injustice. There’s a lot to the story such as the beautiful Kalyani who’s been a widow since the age of nine is prostituted by one of the women of the house as a way to earn money for them. . In one scene Narayana disputes the so called religious reason for isolating the widows. He says that the real reason behind it all is actually economics. By the last half of the movie I was pretty much drenched in tears and pissed to realize that this is still going on today.



Note: When Deepa Mehta first began filming WATER in 2000, angry fundamentalist mobs burned her sets and threatened her life. The Indian government claimed it could not protect her, and the project had to wait four years before finally filming in Sri Lanka. Her film has raised the ire of extremists because it challenges the Hindu customs that dictate that widows, considered half-dead after the loss of their husbands, must be closeted in holy ashrams--a practice that still exists today.



Posted by @ 5:54 AM
5 comment from:  Louise,  Aisha,  Mia,  Emory Mayne,  Mia,