Deepa Mehta: Water

Indian-born Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta’s Water (2005) is now available on DVD. It is subtly powerful, a gem, a work that I strongly recommend for upper school, public, and college/university libraries, and for home collections. Water is vivid, one of the most gorgeous looking films I’ve yet seen. Its elements are timeless, seemingly eternal traditions conflicting with modern change. It is compassionate and empathetic to all its characters (a rare thing in film), underscored with beautiful music and cinematography.

There are strong individual stories set within the larger matrix of historical change. Much of Water is seen through the eyes of Chuyia, a lively eight-year old widow who is sent to an ashram to live out the rest of her days among other discarded widows. The year is 1938, and though in India, under British rule, there are legal alternatives to the ancient Hindu practice of sending widows to pasture, tradition remains well-entrenched. Besides living in an ahsram, widows could marry a husband’s brother if he and his family would accept her; or, more drastically, there was the sati alternative: self-immolation on the husband’s funeral pyre. These are obviously cruel alternatives, as even “the best” option, living in an ashram, is like being consigned to a lifelong oprhange for girls and women only.

Besides changes in law, other challenges to the status quo abound in Water. Indeed, the movie itself, simply by showing the marginalization of widows (still evident to a large extent in South Asia), has been taken as a challenge to societal norms. Deepa Mehta’s sets were attacked and burned by angry traditionalists during the first attempt to complete this film in 2000. She resiliently tried again and filmed in Sri Lanka in 2004.

Within the intertwining narratives of Water, widows, religious leaders, the ascendant Gandhi, and Narayan (John Abraham), a Gandhi proponent, all explore peaceful but often radical alternatives to the old ways.

All of the performances are outstanding. Chuyia (Sarala) is wonderful (and I’m not often a fan of children characters/actors) and serves as the perfect character for introducing the viewer to the milieu. Mehta’s use of a moving camera is particularly effective following Chuyia as she runs through narrow streets and alleyways. Madhumati (Manorma) is perfect as the slothful, crabby head of the ashram who pimps out Kalyana (Lisa Ray), one of the more rebellious widows, in order to pay the rent. Gulabi (Raghuvir Yadav), her eunuch pimp, is colorful and creepy, a Felliniesque character.

My favorite character in Water is Shakuntala, a strong, thoughtful, deeply religious Bengali widow played evocatively by Seema Biswas. She, perhaps more than most, subtly undergoes change in her outlook during the course of the film.

Water is the third in a trilogy of Deepa Mehta films. Earth (1998) is set against the backdrop of the partition of India and Pakistan. Fire (1996) involves intense relationships between women. Water (2005) is well-named, as virtually all of the film takes place against the backdrop of the sacred river, the Ganges (Ganga) where it flows by Varanasi (Benares). Metaphorically, of course, water represents a myriad of deep spiritual traditions, dreams, and possibilities.

Today's Rune: Breakthrough.

Biday for now.