Water- Tranquil or Stormy?

Last weekend, my wife and I were fortunate enough to get seats at a public screening of the movie 'Water' by Deepa Mehta. Deepa Mehta is a well-known and critically acclaimed film-maker and Water is part of a trilogy that was preceded by Earth and Fire. The screening was held at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC and arranged by Smithsonian. The auditorium was filled to capacity and there were many who were left outside and had to go back without watching the movie.

The event started with an informal chat with Deepa Mehta. She came across as a very down-to-earth and confident woman with a very global worldview. The most interesting aspect of the discussion was the interviewer’s insistence on asking about challenges that Deepa felt as a south-Asian woman who makes films in the west. Deepa’s response was a breath of fresh air as she asserted that filmmaking is a difficult art form per se and offers the same challenges for a woman as for a man. She went on to explain that based on her experience, the human emotions are universal. This, she established, made the experience and essence of working with people from all over the world the same. This view made me think that in today’s highly polarized world where differences are lamented upon, Deepa’s assertion comes as a reminder of the once-established values that seem to be eroding as the world is becoming more and more about differences that hinder than the commonalities that can be celebrated. Deepa herself was exposed to this polarization when her production setup in Varanasi (ironically a place where a series of tragic bomb blasts occurred today) was destroyed by Hindu extremists who considered Water to be an anti-Hinduism film. This setback delayed production by 4 years and Deepa had to finally shoot in Sri Lanka. In her words, she was angered when her hard efforts were vandalized and it took her 4 years to get over the anger as she did not want to make this film in a negative state of mind.

'Water' is an emotionally-gripping as well as a thought-provoking cinematic narration of the life of an 8 year old girl-child who becomes a “widow” as her decades older husband passes away. The film is set in an early 20th century widows’ asylum where all the widows of the community are incarcerated as they are prohibited by religion to re-marry or live their lives like regular women. From a social standpoint, they are considered a source of bad luck and are expected to wear dull white clothes and serve as dedicated caretakers of temples so that they can discipline their natural desires. Even their shadow is considered repulsive and their presence at a wedding ceremony is absolutely unthinkable. The movie presents a level of marginalization for widows that comes close to what is usually mentioned with reference to the state of the untouchables in India.

In this social backdrop, the 8 year old Chuiya (played by a promising debutant, Sarala) becomes a widow. Her innocence and oblivion to what is about to beset her is established in an early scene where her father informs her that she is now a widow to which she responds “for how long?”. As per custom and religious order, she is taken to an asylum which is inhabited by women of all ages whose days are spent in never-ending misery and melancholy. What follows then is a skillfully woven tale of what goes on in this supposedly sacred asylum. Although Chuiya enters the asylum with all the feistiness of an 8 year old and continues to liven it up with her mischief, even her spirit is broken by the corruption and power politics of the subculture that exists in the asylum. The self-proclaimed leader of the asylum is an old corrupt lady who enjoys this position by virtue of her being not just a widow but a Brahmin widow. This characterization is definitely an implied reference to the caste system dynamics that plagued and continue to plague the sub-continent.

In addition to the Brahmin widow, the main characters in the asylum are Shakuntala (played by Seemi Biswas of the Bandit Queen fame) and Kalyani (played by Lisa Ray known for her more glamorous roles in videos and Bollywood movies). Both these women have done a tremendous job at acting their roles and have effectively conveyed the challenges of surviving in the lopsided value system of the society that they belong to. While Shakuntala is a middle-aged widow who is still struggling with the burden of widow-hood, Kalyani is a free-spirited girl in her late teens still left with a bit of the spark of youth. Both these characters take very kindly to Chuiya and become her protector and best-friend respectively.

As the film unfolds the corruption of the asylum is exposed. It is shown how the greed of a few leads to exploitation of the young and helpless. It is established how these women are prohibited from legal marital relationships but are made available as prostitutes to the elite of the community. To the shock of the audience, it is presented that men who use these women as sex-slaves do it under the pretext of doing them a favor as they are blessing the widows’ miserable and shunned existence with their higher caste companionship. It is elucidated how religion is used and abused through selective and biased interpretation to ensure that the interest of the powerful few is taken care of. In all, the film goes on to show how through religious bullying spirits are broken beyond repair.

Being set in the early 20th century, an interesting backdrop of the film is the increasing popularity of Gandhi among the masses of India. Throughout the film references are made by characters who are proponents of the established corruption, to what Gandhi is saying and how his views are blasphemous. It is almost as if Deepa Mehta has presented Gandhi as a symbol of change and as a catalyst to bringing the centuries-old organized religion to a much-needed overhaul. This characterization presents the spiritual side of Gandhi’s influence as opposed to the political one. Interestingly, the British are nowhere to be seen on the canvas of Water. This is a deviation from majority of the movies that are set in this era. In Water, they are referred to indirectly and briefly as a people who are being mimicked and supported by the elite of the country. It can be argued, that for the issue that this film addressed, the British Raj could only be shown in a positive light as it effectively established laws to oppose such practices of human marginalization in the name of religion. Maybe it is too early after independence to acknowledge few of the positive aspects that the British Raj brought to the sub-continent.

Overall, 'Water' was a delight to watch. It did justice to the high expectation that have been set in the minds of audiences after Earth and Fire. It comes highly recommended from my wife and me and I hope that Deepa Mehta continues to make such films for years to come.