Movie Reviews -- Water

Deepa Mehta's "Water" is a lot of things: a supremely powerful, yet serene epic film, and humorous and occasionally heartbreaking as well. The underlying story of The Texts of Manu religious doctrine's sexual oppression of women in India who outlived their husbands casts a painful and thought-provoking pall in the underbelly of Deepa Mehta's visually stunning cinema and compelling story.

The widows wrestle with their status as pariahs to the outside world; one questions the true meaning of faith and wonders whether the root of all evil is the money or the religion itself, or both, while another (Bollywood actress Lisa Ray) yearns for emotional freedom and a the chance to marry Naranyan, a Gandhian idealist (Bollywood star John Abraham), the man of her dreams. Kalyani (Ms. Ray) is shackled at every turn by her fellow widowed companions, several of whom admonish her for seeking freedom. The acceptance of their position in Indian society is so deep that in one scene a widow warns that Kalyani will "destroy us all" if she escapes to seek the love of her life.

"Water" crystallizes the search for emancipation of these widows in 1930's India. As a metaphor in the film, water is the substance that sets everyone free, in one way or another.

One woman uses water to escape her predicament, another uses it as a cleansing and a rebirth. Ms. Mehta exemplifies courage, not only in her marvelous directing, but in her political statement to the ruling class of India through this film. "Water" had to shut down production for some five years following, among other things, death threats to Ms. Mehta. "Water" is the third film of a trilogy that began with "Fire" and then "Earth". Chuyia, wonderfully played by Sarala, an 8-year old Sri Lankan girl with no prior acting experience, is the catalyst that slowly but profoundly galvanizes the outcast widows to seek a taste for freedom and a desire for peace.

The one very minor drawback to "Water" however, is that the rich beauty of the landscape settings occasionally overwhelms the dire situation that the widows are placed in. Ms. Mehta's direction and writing are solid, and she no doubt took special pains not to depict the situation, as formidable and as harsh as it must have been (and in numerous cases still is), as a mono-toned story without any sense of hope. While we see that the widows are prisoners within a colonial British rule, their indomitable spirit has not broken them. They are a remarkably charismatic group, even if the scars remain. The energetic musical interludes are a welcome addition as they also help lighten the mood.

"Water" appears to be part farce at times, with Chuyia leading chases throughout the small village town, with fellow widows in hot pursuit. Chuyia regularly admonishes the senior members of the penitent group. Of these, the most memorable is the endless tirade against one (Seema Biswas), who stands out so clearly with her flamboyant character. Some of the lines she speaks go a long way towards lightening the mood, which as previously noted, with its subject matter could have chosen to be more dour, but instead rises and falls in mercurial pulses.

"Water" delves into a richly colorful palette, of which the cinematography takes the utmost advantage. Ms. Mehta's film is a luminescent vision. The closing dissolve fade to black is one of the most beautiful fade out shots you will see. It is a priceless conclusion to a deliciously rich, powerful, despairing and touching journey on a road from the escape from the subjugation of women and colonialism to the emergence of Mahatma Gandhi by the late 1930's into the early 1940's as the British empire retreats in the face of non-violent resistance. This is a must-see film, which enriches both the heart and the mind.