Stagnant water. Review on Water

The subject of film is dull, dark, gloomy and depressing.  I would say even dated.  But it is not necessary that chosen style of narration should also be same.  This is exactly the problem with this nomanee of best foreign language feature film at Oscars this year.   Over hyped by certain section of media this film sadly does not rise above an ordinary, average stale product.

Water has a flow, it takes a direction but this Water doesn’t. Showcasing plight of widows at the Ghats of Varansi in 1938, the film highlights in a parallel manner the story of three widows of different age groups-a child widow, a young widow and an ageing widow that comprises of not more than six lines.  The idea sounds interesting especially to the western audience and therefore in order to cater to them, Ultra-glam John Abraham and Lisa Ray are chosen to play principal parts, which look completely out of place.

What we are left with is amazing performances by two actors-new found child actor Sarala and Seema Biswas plus some master strokes from cameraman Giles Nuttgens, specially when he photographs water. Gandhiji is been quoted at many places but it does not add anything in moving the story forward.  Even Gandhiji’s presence in the climax does neither move the audience, nor make any sense as it is again out of place.  In brief, this film does not encompasses anything interesting or worth stating in the long drawn depiction of a widow Ashram.  The narrative style is reminiscent of the typical art house pretentious, self-pity cinema of 1980s which is dead today.

“Water” may be a bold and brave attempt to look forward to but in final offering it just fails to deliver.