Review of Water on Filmviews.net
Year2005 ReviewerChris Docker
There is only a tiny scene in the two hour Water when Mahatma Gandhi appears. He is seated at Rawalpur railway station among the assembled crowds, giving darshan. Eventually he speaks: I used to think that God is truth, he tells them; now I know that truth is God. Those few moments are more powerful than any less inspired films that have devoted their whole story to his life.
Director Deepa Mehta has a great advantage putting such statements on celluloid: she was born an India, became a philosophy graduate there, but married and has lived in the West, returning to India to make films. She produces work that carries authentic insight into Indian thought and way of life, but can present it in a way that reaches the ears, eyes and minds of Western filmgoers.
Water, the third in a trilogy that started with a heartbreaking journey through the India-Pakistan Partition in Earth, returns to the period of colonial rule, soaring with rich photography, song, and sense of humanity through a love story that will make the most stony-hearted weep, then uses that emotion to drive home a message against oppression that resonates to anyone in the world whose life is destroyed by religious or social dogma.
There are two central themes in Water. One is a Romeo and Juliet story told between to drop dead gorgeous stars told with all the passion and flair that the big screen can impart. The other is the oppression of widows who, even to this day, are encouraged to remain 'faithful' to their husbands even after the husband's death.
The movie opens in the vivid and colourful Indian countryside. Gradually we move from the lush flora to an ox-drawn cart. It bears a sick man, and a young child sits near his feet, playfully teasing his ankles. Shortly afterwards, the child Chuyia is told that her 'husband is dead' and that she is now a widow. Too young to understand that widowhood is generally for life, she asks her father, how long for? To prevent unfaithfulness, she is dumped off at a charity home for widows. Regarded as 'polluted,' she has her hair shaved off and is forbidden to re-marry. Chuyia makes friends with Kalyani, a beautiful young widow who breaks the rules by falling in love with the educated, speccy young Narayan.
Although the two lead roles of Kalyani and Narayan are both possessed of exceedingly good looks, they are introduced naturally and without obvious make-up. Kalyani also has great spirituality and romantic capacity for love, which is soon put to good use. The audience is gunning for them after a short period of illicit wooing, conscious of the risk they run in the face of social and religious taboos. Music naturally kicks in to heighten the romantic tension (be warned: if you haven't brought a box of tissues run and get some now.) There are even some humorous and self-conscious references to Romeo and Juliet in the Narayan household, but our hearts break for Kalyani as she struggles against her beliefs and makes a secret tryst with Narayan at a temple, offering prayers on the way.
The year is 1938. New thinking is permeating India, both from western freethinkers and from Gandhi with his notion of 'passive resistance.' Women's emancipation is still wishful thinking of the punishable kind: "Where is the house for men widows?" asks Chuyia innocently. The other women are shocked beyond belief, saying she should have her tongue cut off and thrown in the river. Narayan's family are equally discouraging. They want him to marry a 'pure' woman in best tradition, not some second-hand lowlife that will bring disgrace on the family. "Don't you want to set up a family?" exhorts his mother. "It's not like setting yoghurt!" he quips back at her. Dad tries a gentler approach, suggesting Narayan takes her as a mistress. (I won't spoil it by telling you what happens - this is an epic to enjoy, make your own, and take into the heart and head and mull over.) Water is a visually awesome panoramic, brilliantly acted and bursting with beautiful poetry and imagery. A sublime romance with a kick to the head you won't forget, and for which Mehta suffered threats to life and the burning of her film sets by Hindu extremists. The endnotes use 21st century statistics to point out the millions of women still living under archaic oppression.
Rating: 9/10;