FILM REVIEW: Water

[pryor15]

starring: Lisa Ray, Sarala, John Abraham, and Seema Biswas
written and directed by: Deepa Mehta
PG-13, 117 min, 2006, Canada/India

Over the last several years, cinema has made a noticeable move toward more issue-oriented topics. Call it the documentary influence or an offshoot of the indie explosion of the last decade or the re-emergence of the foreign film, but more and more films are using the power of the medium to expose various forms of injustice and social indignities around the world. Rarely are these films well received by the institutions responsible for the dynamic on film, but few films have faced the same level of pressure as Deepa Mehta’s Water, the third film in her “elemental trilogy”[1], which was shut down by religious fundamentalists in 2000, only to be completed in 2004 under a fake title.

The reason being that in a culture where a strict adherence to religious ideals is a fundamental way of life, Water dares suggest the ideals and, to an extent, the religion itself is a flawed construct of economic convenience, that a large group of people have been oppressed and marginalized simply because it is cheaper, that said ideals might even be immoral. Such suggestions often raise the ire of those who cling to the belief structure, as it calls into question their entire way of life.

Specifically, Water deals with Chuyia (Sarala), a seven-year-old widow who has had her head shaved and been sent by her family to live in a house of widows where they might not be tainted by her misfortune. There she befriends Kalyani (Lisa Ray), the crown jewel of the house with her long hair and such beauty that she is frequently called across the river to entertain rich clients. The widow’s life is a drab one. They are forbidden from wearing anything other than a white sari or eating much more than rice or interacting with normal members of society or otherwise participating in anything beyond a drab survival. But a chance encounter brings Kalyani to the attention of Narayana (John Abraham), a progressive disciple of Ghandi who supports a Indian nationalism yet questions the religion on which the country relies. Naturally, he falls in love with the beautiful Kalyani and focuses his energy on marrying her, a practice that is newly legalized but frowned upon.

Clearly this is a raw deal for the women affected, but what’s remarkable about these women is how their faith endures despite the treatment their belief system has inflicted on them. These are women of strong devotion, most of them quick to condemn Chuyia’s question of what happens to the male widows as a form of heresy, yet a simple lack of faith would improve their lives considerably. But that’s what faith often is–a belief despite reason.

If the depiction of the treatment of widows in India is to be believed (and there’s no reason to think it isn’t), then you have to wonder about a society that permits such injustice. At the same time, though, it’s difficult to reconcile such a thing with a Judeo-Christian world view, as it shares little with the Hindu system. To a western audience, such treatment seems incomprehensible, but I imagine a Hindu looking at some of the tenets and laws of Christianity might find them equally appalling. It’s all a matter of context, really.

Little of this has to do with the film itself, which in terms of quality compares to Maria Full of Grace (2004), but that’s okay because Mehta’s chief concern is shining a light in a dark corner and dealing with stories and lives that are often pushed aside. As a result, Water tends to simplify the issue at hand and occasionally forces a message on the audience (especially in the film’s final act, which borders on preaching and is about fifteen minutes too long), but it’s hard to fault Mehta’s tendency to push an agenda when people are resorting to violence in an attempt to silence her.

More effective than Water the film is the issues and topics it tends to raise, chiefly that of social injustice and the role of faith, the origins of religious tradition, and how that affects a modern-day world. Narayana argues that widows are treated horribly because the authors of the Holy Scriptures were cost-conscious and as such not all the traditions should be taken as dogma, since often they come from a time and place that had different requirements for survival. The film, set in 1938 as Ghandi is beginning his quest for independence from the British, deals with an India struggling to adapt itself to a modern world. Western influence is forcing some traditions to die, but religion refuses to budge, because if the Holy Scriptures are truly sacred, they cannot change. For if they were to change, it would be an indication that they are wrong, but what happens when society changes so much the Scriptures (or at least the classic interpretation of them) no longer fit with a modern morality, if what was previously acceptable is now wrong? Do the Holy Scriptures change or must we change the context in which we view them? A classic interpretation cannot co-exist with a humane treatment of widows and an inhumane treatment of a human being does not exactly co-exist with the basic principles religion espouses.

Mehta’s main point, if I understand her correctly, is that while faith is a wonderfully powerful thing, sometimes a blind faith and devotion to tradition is an ultimately dangerous and immoral. And in a battle between religious tradition and morality, we must choose morality, regardless of the potential consequence. In the film’s final scene Shakuntala (Seema Biswas) commits an act that is at the same time a sin and the right thing to do. But if a sin is a clearly moral action, what does that mean for the institution that decrees what is and is not a sin?

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[1] The other two are Fire (1996), a look at loveless arranged marriages (with a lesbian subplot), and Earth (1998), which deals partly with various religious groups in India. I have not seen either film.



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for current films, i'll add my own take on the rating scale:

0 -- Unless there's a rapping genie, avoid.
1 -- You should probably get drunk first.
2 -- Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, but you should find a way to do something better.
3 -- Either a nerd will tell you this is better than you thought or a film buff will tell you it's overrated.
4 -- Expect it to be in the Oscar discussion.
5 -- A [censored] classic on par with the all-time greats.

compelling and powerful, but could be better. 4.2

oot films

[Dominic]

i've always wanted to see the first two films in this trilogy...I think Water is opening in Vegas this weekend and I look froward to checking it out...

[pryor15]

[ QUOTE ]
i've always wanted to see the first two films in this trilogy...I think Water is opening in Vegas this weekend and I look froward to checking it out...

[/ QUOTE ]

so something opened in Pittsburgh before Vegas? wow, that's a first.

[Burdzthewurd]

I saw this for free at the Umass Multicultural Film Festival. India's widows are NOT treated like that now, from what I have been told from some of my Indian peers.

[Fabian]

pryor,

I was looking through the oot films archive and the link to one review I wanted to read, V for Vendetta, didn't work. Do you know where I can find it?

[pryor15]

[ QUOTE ]
pryor,

I was looking through the oot films archive and the link to one review I wanted to read, V for Vendetta, didn't work. Do you know where I can find it?

[/ QUOTE ]


V for Vendetta

or

V for Vendetta

[diebitter]

[ QUOTE ]
pryor,

I was looking through the oot films archive and the link to one review I wanted to read, V for Vendetta, didn't work. Do you know where I can find it?

[/ QUOTE ]


-- Fabian
I fixed the link.

--Pryor
Another great review that stimulates my interest to see this movie. Unfortunately, there's no way I get to see this till it's out on DVD (I live in the provinces...), I'll keep a look out for this.

[LittleOldLady]

Wouldn't one have to put the life of Hindu widows as depicted in this film in the context of suttee (sati)? The voluntary (or not so voluntary) immolation of widows on their husbands' funeral pyres is a very old practice in India. It has been banned, but nevertheless still occurs on very rare occasions. If suttee (sati) was a long-standing and apparently admired (if always very limited in practice) custom in India, could the segregation depicted in the film be considered, in some sense, an improvement, however inhumane in and of itself, in the treatment of widows?

[pryor15]

[ QUOTE ]
Wouldn't one have to put the life of Hindu widows as depicted in this film in the context of suttee (sati)? The voluntary (or not so voluntary) immolation of widows on their husbands' funeral pyres is a very old practice in India. It has been banned, but nevertheless still occurs on very rare occasions. If suttee (sati) was a long-standing and apparently admired (if always very limited in practice) custom in India, could the segregation depicted in the film be considered, in some sense, an improvement, however inhumane in and of itself, in the treatment of widows?

[/ QUOTE ]

this was a "choice" brought up in the film (1 of 3 things can happen to a widow: throw on flames, ashram, or marry the younger brother of husband), but the ashram (or what the film deals with) is the most common of the 3. for a girl who never really knew her husband, the throwing on the flames isn't really an options.

but even if it is an improvement, it ain't all that wonderful

[fyodor]

Liked your review more than I liked the film. It was ok but a little simplistic in character development. I also found the score reminiscent of the theme song from The Titanic and as much as I liked The Titanic (yes I did) the constant reminder of Celine Dione was distracting in a negative fashion.

There was a lot to like about the way the film was put together but I would have to score it about 3.5/5 myself.