Water by writer-director Deepa Mehta, is up for Best Foreign Language Film. It's set in 1930's India and is about the plight of widows. Widows must live in a special ashram reserved for them. The film opens as Chuyia, an 8 year-old widow, is placed into one by her father. Yeah, you read that right.
Chuyia is befriended by fellow widow Kalyani (played by the beautiful Lisa Ray). She's in her 20s and is prostituted by the matriarch as the ashram's only source of income. We follow her story among some of the others.
Widows are shunned by society. As an example when one goes out to get water near where a wedding is, a man says to her "Don't let your shadow touch the bride". It's just astounding to watch how it's completely ingrained in the religion and society that these people are outcasts. In the background, Gandhi is changing things in India but even the widows find his statements that the untouchables deserved freedom, unimaginable.
If it's not obvious that Mehta is trying to make a statement, a widow asks "Why are we widows sent here? There must be a reason for it." and the response by a liberal thinking young Brahman is "One less mouth to feed. Four saris saved, one bed, and a corner is saved in the family house. There is no other reason why you are here. Disguised as religon, it's just about money."
As I look in IMDB it seems Water has been banned in India and it seems they tried to film it there but there were many protests, so it was filmed in Sri Lanka. The film ends with the following note: "There are over 34 million widows in India according to the 2001 Census. Many continue to live in conditions of social, economic and cultural deprivation as prescribed 2000 years ago by the Sacred Texts of Manu."
I really enjoyed this film and look forward to seeing Mehta's previous films in this trilogy, Fire and Earth.
No comments:
Post a Comment