Water
A few nights ago I saw a preview of this film and I was emotionally shaken by it. This is the third in Deepa Mehta's trilogy using the elements of the planet as the title. The first two were Fire and Earth and all three films have forbidden love as one of its themes.
When Water starts we see pretty young Chuyia traveling with her family to an as of yet unknown destination. Although Chuyia is not even eight she is already married. Her husband, who is much older, is dying. Before they reach where they are going he is gone. This makes Chuyia a very young widow. Because the "holy books" dictate it, Chuyia has to live in a widow's colony and will not be allowed to remarry because half of her body and soul has left the earth plane and is with her husband.
Upon arriving at the widow's colony Chuyia's head is shaved and she puts on a simple sari of widow's white. She meets many other widows, some of whom have been there since they were her age. She turns out to be a handful for some of the other widows but she is, after all, only a child.
One of the other widows that she meets is the beautiful Kalyani who does not shave her head. It turns out that Kalyani often goes to the house of a rich Brahmin to have sex with him. He feels that since he is a Brahmin he is entitled to have sex outside of his marriage and his wife goes along with it. The money that she gets paid helps the widow's colony or at least that is what she is told.
One day Chuyia and Kalyani meet a handsome young man named Narayana. He and Kalyani lock eyes. With some manipulation they manage to meet again and again and they fall in love.
It turns out that Narayana is the son of the Brahmin that Kalyani is having sex with. To say more about the plot would be to give away too much and I do not want to do that.
Mehta does a fine job of directing the film. You feel like you are on the inside of the widow's colony and you can read the thoughts of some of the women that you meet just by looking at their faces. Young actress Sarala is outstanding as Chuyia. Your heart goes out to her when she cries for her mother. Lisa Ray and John Abraham are also fine as Kalyani and Narayana.
Mehta tried to make the film a number of years ago but the Indian government managed to shut down the production. The film was eventually made in Sri Lanka. It is hard to believe that this story took place in 1938 because that is not so long ago. Just thinking about how these women and girls were treated makes my blood boil. Thanks to Mahatma Gandhi and others the laws have been changed but there are still some people in India, especially in the villages, who believe in and practice this barbaric ritual. A lot of people think that religion makes human beings more civilized. I would say that in some ways that can be true depending on how sincere one is. But, any religion that is fundamentalist will view women as the inferior sex. And, I say, that any religion that does not see women as equals to men is not worth practicing.
When Water starts we see pretty young Chuyia traveling with her family to an as of yet unknown destination. Although Chuyia is not even eight she is already married. Her husband, who is much older, is dying. Before they reach where they are going he is gone. This makes Chuyia a very young widow. Because the "holy books" dictate it, Chuyia has to live in a widow's colony and will not be allowed to remarry because half of her body and soul has left the earth plane and is with her husband.
Upon arriving at the widow's colony Chuyia's head is shaved and she puts on a simple sari of widow's white. She meets many other widows, some of whom have been there since they were her age. She turns out to be a handful for some of the other widows but she is, after all, only a child.
One of the other widows that she meets is the beautiful Kalyani who does not shave her head. It turns out that Kalyani often goes to the house of a rich Brahmin to have sex with him. He feels that since he is a Brahmin he is entitled to have sex outside of his marriage and his wife goes along with it. The money that she gets paid helps the widow's colony or at least that is what she is told.
One day Chuyia and Kalyani meet a handsome young man named Narayana. He and Kalyani lock eyes. With some manipulation they manage to meet again and again and they fall in love.
It turns out that Narayana is the son of the Brahmin that Kalyani is having sex with. To say more about the plot would be to give away too much and I do not want to do that.
Mehta does a fine job of directing the film. You feel like you are on the inside of the widow's colony and you can read the thoughts of some of the women that you meet just by looking at their faces. Young actress Sarala is outstanding as Chuyia. Your heart goes out to her when she cries for her mother. Lisa Ray and John Abraham are also fine as Kalyani and Narayana.
Mehta tried to make the film a number of years ago but the Indian government managed to shut down the production. The film was eventually made in Sri Lanka. It is hard to believe that this story took place in 1938 because that is not so long ago. Just thinking about how these women and girls were treated makes my blood boil. Thanks to Mahatma Gandhi and others the laws have been changed but there are still some people in India, especially in the villages, who believe in and practice this barbaric ritual. A lot of people think that religion makes human beings more civilized. I would say that in some ways that can be true depending on how sincere one is. But, any religion that is fundamentalist will view women as the inferior sex. And, I say, that any religion that does not see women as equals to men is not worth practicing.
posted by Film Fanatic | 11:48 AM
1 Comments:
Your review is so much clearer than the ones posted in Netflix.
I liked especially your conclusions
that fundamental religions which treat women as inferiors (worse than that) are not worth practising. Amen to that!
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