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Water |
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| Movie: | Water |
| Director: | Deepa Mehta |
| Genre: | Social |
| Start Cast: |
Seema Biswas, Lisa Ray, John Abraham, Sarala, Raghuveer Yadav, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Vinay Pathak, Waheeda Rahman |
| Music: | A R Rahman |
| Our Rating: | **** |
| Review By: | Bedika |
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 There are not too many movies, which shock you and influence you to sit back and reconsider your convictions and thoughts but ‘water’ as a movie has a tremendous potential to infuse that feeling in you. Long after you have finished watching water, the ripples of it keep moving round and round at the back of your head. When it comes to portraying a story it is a movie, which is as soft and simple as water. Not even for a single moment would it strays from the subject or a message, which it wants to narrate. Undoubtedly, when it comes to the Deepa Mehta’s choice of subject, it has always been different the general plot. In her first movie ‘Earth’ she showed us the horrifying state of women during the partition, how they lost everything in the madness of a war, which they did not start. ‘Earth’, was based on Bapsi Sidhwa’s famous novel ‘Ice candy Man’. ‘Fire’ a sequel to ‘Earth’ highlighted on women and lesbianism with a great sensitivity. While these movies talked about women who suffered on the name of religion and traditions, ‘Water’ questions that very religion which professed only suffering for the women. The final movie in this trilogy ‘Water’ is Deepa Mehta’s most accomplished work till date. It is not always easy to emerge as a winner despite facing so many hurdles. Deepa wanted to shoot her movie in Varanasi in 2000. But she faced stiff resistance from the fanatics and she had to stop the movie at that time. At last she made the movie in Sri Lanka with a new star cast. |
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 Water flows like a delicate flawless stream on the screen. It takes you way back to the India of 1930s. The story revolves around a Widow Ashram. In that era child marriages were very common and so were the child widows. During this time fight for freedom was also at its peak and Gandhi was emerging as the leader of freedom fighters. His message of truth and love was spreading among the common people. Despite the entire awakening drive, this dark corner of country was still unaware of the changes, which were happening in the country. Water is the story of those unfortunate souls who had no share or contribution to make and be a part of the freedom struggle of our country, India.
The story opens with the nine year old Chuhia’s (Sarala) marriage with a man who is on his deathbed. Chuhia is entirely unaware of her marriage and her widowhood, which soon follows. Her father leaves her in a wodow Ashram. Where she befriends a young widow Kalyani (Lisa Ray) and Shakuntala (Seema Biswas) and an old Bua. Chuhia hates the lady who is the in charge of the Ashram, she still believes that her mother will come and take her to her home. Widows in the ashram are deprived of all earthly pleasures and live in an inhuman condition. They are not allowed to eat more than a meal a day. And the society cannot bear even the shadow of these widows in the daylight but in the darkness of the night they easily abuse them and defend their actions on the name of scriptures. Kalyani (Lisa Ray) is used as a prostitute by the in charge of the Ashram. Narayan (John Abraham) falls in love with kalyani. Hell breaks out when Narayan decides to marry Kalyani. But his love fails to save Kalyani from the destiny, which has been already decided by the society. After the death of Kalyani, ashram’s head uses Chuhia to please the powerful perverts of the society.
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 Deepa Mehta directs her story with an immense simplicity, which is very remarkable. The scenes make you smile while your eyes are full of tears. Story revolves around the small moments of the widows’ life. In their dreary and deprived life sometimes you find the precious moments of happiness, love, affection and hope. Chuhia is like a thread around which Deepa weaves all her characters. Deepa has never tried to preach about the pathetic conditions of the widows. Her narration grips your heart and makes you question on everything, be it the society or the religion. You wonder that how can a society be so insensitive and a religion so blind. The anger keeps piling up inside you, after all who has given them the right to decide everything about a woman. Seema Biswas (Shakuntala), who plays a role of a middle-aged widow, needs a special mention. She is the strongest character in the movie. She never speaks more than two sentences at a time and remains silent largely but her eyes say it all and whenever she opens her mouth her words slice your soul. She is the one who dares to question religion and being a rational mind she wonders the way they are forced to live. Once again Sarala in the role of Chuhia grips your attention. Her character is full of childish mischief and innocence. She portrays the character of a child widow who is still not aware of the gravity and grief that has come along with her widowhood. Chuhia’s chemistry with Seema Biswas is superb. John in the role of Narayan is good. He has successfully portrayed the Gandhian romantic who has a vision of a free India. Reciting kalidasa’s Meghadutam, the romance between Narayan and Kalyani touches you for its simplicity. If there is any flaw in the movie then that is Lisa Ray’s foreign accent, which is very strong and hampers the credibility of her role, otherwise she is fine in the role of a young widow. Every small character befits in the role. Be it Bua’s character or the character of a priest’s.
A R Rahman’s music is soft and mesmerizing. There are only four songs in the movie but they fit very well in the narrative. The use of flute in the background is very unique. Specially ‘sajan sakhi ayo re’ and ‘piya’ songs are memorable with their soulful music. Deepa may not have won an Oscar for this movie but she has won many hearts by successfully telling a story, which was never told so perfectly and beautifully. Go and watch the movie even if you are not a fan of serious movies. It is not a movie but a truth, which we all need to understand.
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