Just back from watching Deepa Mehta’s ‘Water’; I shall not call

it a masterpiece; But it is a film with amazing plays of light which ultimately saves the film from being a dark, brooding cinema.

          

 

          

          Set in pre independent India of 1938 & shot extensively in SriLanka( to escape the wrath of local people of Benaras) it is a period film about the life of widows in India & their subhuman existence. Shunned by both their immediate family & by the society, these hapless widows shuffle from one day to another

          

like blind penguins(their single white robe very much signifying

          

the absolute absence of any color from their lives).

          

 

          

 Denied any basic rights, education & therefore the dignity that is so vital for any life they cling on to each other in the ‘vidhvaashram’ where they are flung so cruelly after the death of their husbands.

          

 

          

The film begins with carriage of a bullock cart which rumbles on a verdant vista & the camera swoops on the delicate anklets of a child. She giggles oblivious to the misery of her dying husband who is being cared for by his mother. The poor man breathes his last in the middle of the night & the child, Choomiya is rudely awoken for the horrific rituals that follow.

          

 

          

 The camera captures the innocence of her face as her head is shaved off. Robed in a single white linen cloth she is left off in a ashram where she is the youngest victim. Rebellious in the beginning she mellows down later & is accepted & looked after quite affectionately by the ‘shaved’ community. Their chief is a fat greedy cow who bends rules to accommodate the luxurious mane of a fair skinned widow, Kalyani as she  brings in money when she is sent to entertain the rich clientele.

          

 

          

It is a story of quiet acceptance & muffled rage which is painted vividly by the lights of every type.

          

 

          

The ominous lights of the funeral pyres which burn forlornly on the ghaats of the Ganga, the flickering lanterns which throw ugly shadows on the lonely lanes which wind their ways through the old stone buildings & the quiet glow of the earthen diyas which light up the courtyards where the barren branches sway in the dark nights.

          

 The play of these lights & shadows weave a mystic which essentially is the soul of this film.

          

 

          

 

          

In the end ‘Water’ succeeds in sending the most powerful message which clearly asks the Woman of Today to celebrate

          

The life through all the senses of sight, sound, smell & sex!

          

 

          

                           By rashmi narsapur

Plot Revealed In The Review:	Revealed in detail
Best to watch with:	Friends
Movie Genre:	Drama
Best part in the movie:	Script