Water April 6, 2007

FLICS presents this film. Admission is $4.

The year is 1938, India is ruled by the British, and it is around this time that Mohandas K. Gandhi has arrived from Africa to begin his tryst with the British, as well as battle the traditions that bind the Hindus. Barely in her teens, Chuyia is married to much older and sickly male, who shortly after the marriage, passes away. Chuyia is returned unceremoniously to her parents' house, and from there she is taken to the holy city of Banaras and left in the care of a wide assortment of widows. Chuyia believes that her mother will come to take her home. Here she meets the several elderly women, including the head, Madhumati; a quiet, confident woman named Shakuntala, and a gorgeous young woman named Kalyani. Chuyia does not know that according to Holy Hindu Scriptures she has been destined to live here for the rest of her life, for when a woman's husband dies', she has three options: One to marry her husband's younger brother; two to kill herself on his funeral pyre; three to live a life of celibacy, discipline, and solitude amongst her own kind. The fourth law which permits a widow to re-marry is not quite popular, and it is these laws and openly welcoming the lower castes that will pit Gandhiji amongst his very own people, apart from struggling with the British to leave India. Kalyani meets and falls in love with young Narayan, a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, who wants to marry her, despite of his mother's protests. But on the fateful day when ferrying her to his home, Kalyani recognizes the house, the very same house she had been forced to visit as a prostitute years ago with a man who is now Narayan's father. The question remains will Kalyani prefer living the life of a confined widow, or marry Narayan and live with his father under the same roof? And is Chuyia really destined to live the rest of her life as a widow?

One of the most powerful movies I have ever seen! The actors were fearless. The story was honest, raw and moving. I feel changed by it. Deepa Mehta' created something out of love, vision and fearlessness and it shows. I was brought to tears by the end of the film, not because of pity for the characters but rather out of pride. Though the film deals with heavy issues the actors carried it with dignity. The script articulates the tragedy and hypocrisy these women must bare but it also illustrates the quiet revolution we must all experience in order to grow, in order to change. I have seen Earth, Fire and now Water and Mehta has done justice to all of them.

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