Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, London 2007

Clemmy Manzo
posted 29 March 2007

Set in British-ruled India in 1938, Water gives us an insight into one of the most outrageous Hindu traditions that some Indian widows are subjected to still. It is the third and final part of Deepa Mehta's trilogy, and caused even more outrage in India than previous instalments Fire and Earth. The filming commenced in 2000 but had to be abandoned as a result of riots and burning of the sets by Hindu fundamentalists, as well as a threat on Mehta's life. Five years later, with a new budget and a re-jigging of the cast, filming restarted, but Mehta had to compromise by filming in Sri Lanka rather than in Varanasi where the story is set.

Under the Manusmriti Hindu texts, a widow is considered only half human and blamed for her husband's death. She is ostracised by the rest of society, locked away in 'Ashrams' and often forced into a life of prostitution and begging. This is the fate that awaits eight-year-old Chuyia (Sarala), already married and widowed. Her head is shaved and she is taken by her father to an Ashram, where she is forced to live with older women who have suffered the same fate. Amongst them is 'Auntie' (Vidula Javalgekar), an old woman who thinks and dreams of Indian sweets. Her yearning for the sweet laddoos that she last tasted on her wedding day when she was a child of seven (widows are not allowed to eat fried food) is comical but also tragic. It is as if her memory has frozen in time and become transfixed on this one day in her distant past when she was not yet an outcast.

Chuyia also befriends Kalyani (Lisa Ray), whose beauty is her downfall, as she is the one forced by the cruel head of the Ashram, Madhumati (Manorama) to prostitute herself to rich Brahmins across the holy Ganges in order to subsidise the household. Chuyia's innocent questions, such as 'Where is the house for men widows?' highlight the heart wrenching injustice of the widows' situation, but Water is a love story as much as it is a political insight to the situation of widows and child marriages in India.

Narayan (Bollywood star John Abraham), a liberal intellectual and follower of Gandhi, wishes to marry Kalyani, despite her status as a widow, and much to the horror of Madhumati. However, there is no Bollywood happy ending to this love affair. Instead, the lovers' fate serves as a further indictment of the law. As the film unfolds, we are moved to see Shakuntala (brilliantly played by Seema Biswas) - a devout Hindu widow who comes across as stern at first - gradually start to doubt the law she previously accepted as holy truth. She begins to pay attention to the teachings of Gandhi. Discovering that a law has passed allowing widows to remarry, she cries, 'Why don't we know about this?', to which the village holy man replies, 'We ignore the laws that do not benefit us'. Gandhi's influence gathers momentum as the film progresses and towards the end he comes to visit Varanasi to conduct a prayer. 'For a long time, I believed God is Truth; now I know that Truth is God', he says.

Water is beautifully filmed. The serene setting and dreamy landscapes contrast with the horror of the ordeal these women have to bear. Mehta sensitively exposes the treatment of widows under Hindu law as a patriarchal custom that has been veiled as a sancrosanct belief. As Narayan puts it, 'disguised as a religion, its just about money'. Water is not only a stunning film, it is also an important achievement in exposing the injustice that Indian women have suffered in the past and some still suffer to this day.

On general release from 1 June 2007.