“Water” went through the turmoil of dealing with the conservative hinduists who protested even before the shooting was about to begin due to Deepa Mehta’s earlier film “Fire” which deals with lesbianism. After much struggle and a new cast and location in Sri Lanka, the film progressed and ultimately landed for the Academy Award nomination for foreign film from the land of Canada than from the country which rejected this effort of liberation. This is a moving story about widows in the 1938 pre-independence India and it will not be a surprise if the traditions and beliefs are still followed in main state and corners of the country (which is also authenticated by the information given at the end of the film).A naïve girl Chuyia (Sarala Kariyawasam) not more than the age of seven is said that her husband is dead and she is a widow now. She asks “For how long”. Her head is shaved and with the white sari covering her, she is damned in to the house or ashram of widows. The concept of ill treating the widow is nothing new for me as there was countless number of films using it as an exploitative material than a real sense of its atrocity in Indian films. Deepa Mehta’s depiction is still, serene and that shocks us. The end cruelties are neither dramatized nor dismissed. And that holds us in deep pain and frustration.
Chuyia in the process being acclimatized to her new home meets up with two souls in their own hell. One is Kalyani (Lisa Ray), a trade in set by the head of the house Madhu (Manorama) to the rich clients shamelessly sleeps in the name of religion and manhood. Her head is not shaven as she needs to be attractive. The old holy book takes back seat on that occasion and many such. Convenience is the scale for practicing religious and social laws of any kind. As the little bird in a dense cage of obsolete desires, Chuyia hangs out a lot with Kalyani. Chuyia’s next acquaintance is Shakuntala (Seema Biswas) and she has accepted her reality in this place and puts her trust on faith. A blind faith on the very same religion and its principles which has put her into this state of misery. But a person in her position is in serious beckoning to clutch on something when conscience of oneself does not weigh in that society.
Mehta uses the girl as the unaffected face of truth and innocence. Either challenging the authority or getting perplexed by the unfairness posed by the male dominated society, she is the modern enlightened eyes of audience in the film. Kalyani is the rebel listening to her inner voice. She meets Narayan (John Abraham), a law graduate and an ardent follower of Gandhi. The romance which develops in between them happens with eyes and blushes which I have seen in many other films from India. But here we understand their attractions. Talking is prohibited with the widows as they are to be devoid of any pleasure whatsoever, even sharing of thoughts. With those constraints, a humble look of youth and kindness is enough for both the parties to be intertwined in love.
Narayan is the only man who in this religious chaos is liberal and daring too. He talks literature to Kalyani who does not know how to read. He is the hope in this film. And in the cinematography of Giles Nuttgens, the Sri Lankan Varanasi glitters, sulks and soothes through rivers, greeneries, moon and the dark rooms of the widow house. There is a tint of sadness in each of the beauty the nature poses as these doves with their wings tied spend their eternity in boredom, humiliation and sadness.
The fact that there are still places in India which adheres to this faith is scary and deeply disturbing. And it is reflected on not allowing the filming to proceed. It is clear that “Water” is a film is more emotionally attached and struggling for Mehta. But the emotions do not over take the film’s presentation in anyways at all. The reactions of each character and the behaviour of it is never been animated as the Bollywood and other films from India would have for the traditional movie making.
“Water” is the third film in the “Fire”, “Earth” and I have not yet seen latter. I have forgotten seeing “Fire” but it was a daring attempt. With “Water” Mehta has clearly cut the sentimentality of the deeply drenched society of religious rituals and insensitive codes of disgracing humans mainly women. This film is not alone about the sufferings of women but a break through into the path of truth and conscience advocated by the sequences of Gandhi and conversation of Shakuntala with the priest (Khulbushan Kharbananda). This is a socially conscious film deals with stillness of sheer brutality to the innocence which is both symbolically and cinematically given.
2 comments:
In the book "The Age of Kali", William Dalrymple talks about the widows of Vrindavan. To even read about the pathetic state of these widows was heart-wrenching. A visual portrayal would have been even more emotionally affecting for sure.
Nagesh.
The tragedy of their life of course is unbearably cold and cruel. Deepa Mehta thus gives a very monotonic styled tale of it so that we can watch it through the end. It is a sad story.
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