follow the message of the warrior, swarrier

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C’mon, would you deprive me of my hates?

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i saw the warrior and it was an excellent film. dont be such a jealous hater swarrier-give the artist her due

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And the Titanic was a great film I’m sure.
From Canada too, Hindi is a native canadian language. ’’The Warrior’’ a better film was not considered because Hindi wasn’t a British language. )

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an oscar nomination for water. read it and weep guys

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Why make a movie about widows when virgin unmarried girls in ,Chandni ’ ’’Chameeli are even in worse condition NOW thnan widows in age of dino.......

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Ah well, perhaps I am just biased against Mehta. But the hybrid genre is old hat to a lot of us who grew up with cross-over films, so perhaps we want it out.

I don’t remember the last shot, but I do agree that Biswas was and is a great actress.

By the way another thing that jarred me was the very Tamilian/Sri Lankan sarees in the temple at Varanasi. Even the people looked a little different more Pandiyan Tamil than say a mixture of North Indians.

I talked this over with my wife but she says all sorts of people do visit those temples so ....

Your take on the movie is interesting. Thanks.

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re: 8

i didnt find the moments you cited as overly contrived or bollywoodish but slightly whimsical. the umbrella was a metaphor for boat/body/ashes, also, a kind of inversion of the image of rain. thats what i mean by mehta’s photography direction-the meanings are simultaneous and layered. the singing that took place might have been kitschy, but it didnt seem to actually detract from the film. bjork did something similar in lars van trier’s dancer in the dark-that is, a character bursts into song and its seen as an interlude or an extension of that scene and not necessarily purely entertainment. thats what i meant by hybrid genre.

mehta’s movie was controlled and meditative. she was extremely smart and pointed when it becomes clear that narayan’s committment is too easily exhausted and he’s off to the city. Biswas’s character answers that in one of the most amazing images of this film-the last shot of the film as she looks back in the direction of the village.

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I saw it a while ago but some of the things, throwing the water onto John Abraham, something to do with rain and umbrellas, the meeting of Lisa and John (at night), the songs it looked very kitschy from my viewpoint. Again in 1930’s India it would be very difficult for a young widow who is also a mistress of many men to be seen in the daylight with an upper caste man.

I believe part of the movie’s idea came from ’’Sei Samai’’ by Sunil Gangopadhyay and he presents an even more bleak picture of the widows. You should read the book if you haven’t already, the English translation is available.

Of course these are only parts of the film so I’m not entirely fair in depicting the whole thing as kitsch. What I miss in Deepa Mehta’s movies is a subtle understatement that I like in directors like Adoor, Sen.

That said I do think she is a good director and I put in my ’’tolerable’’ bits just for debate.



I do believe that she should have been more faithful with the subtitling.

Its funny as a kid in India I saw a series of little films that she made with her then husband Paul Saltzmann called ’’Spread your wings’’. I remember those with some fondness.

If you get a chance see a movie called ’’Sancharam (The Journey)’’. It is subtle for a debut director and while it has a couple of horribly cloying moments it is good.

Cheers.

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re: 6

Could you explicate what aspects of Water might be considered ’’kitschy’’?

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Sam
I know quite a few Indian fcss who think Ms.Mehta wouldn’t be kosher if she wasn’t expatriate Indian babe in Kanada.
Aparna Sen, Suma Josson, Vijaya Mehta make better movies. Even Ligi Pullapally’s debut film was better (except a couple of scenes at the end)

I did like Water. But it ain’t a great movie. It is kitsch.

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Deepa Mehta is an artist in her own right-its a pity indian mcps cant give her earned due

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Uh, Deepa Mehta is just about tolerable. She can’t make a serious film without giving into Bollywood kitsch. I found the sub-titles designed to shock rather than be accurate.

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seema biswas was the core of this film

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