THE POLITICAL CONTROVERSY OF DEEPA MEHTA'S FILM - "WATER"

Water is a film about Indian widows in the 1930s. In the past, many women whose husbands have died are forced to enter "widow houses." Without a husband they are labelled as "worthless" and I remember one character in the film who was accidently touched by one of the widows said: "You've touched me, I am now polluted, I must go back into the river to bathe again." These widows struggle to survive by begging and often turn to prostitution. It happened in the ‘30s and is still happening today. At present, approximately 34 million widows still follow this tradition that was started 2000 years ago.

The chosen location for Water was the holy city of Varanasi, a place where widow houses still exist. There is a building on the Ganges that was left in a will to shelter widows, but a disobedient landlord has converted the top two floors into a restaurant and guest house, while the lower floor, which is completely rundown, houses widows.

This film takes place during the rise of the independence struggles against British colonial rule. It focuses on a relationship between one of the widows, Kalyani, who wants to escape the social restrictions imposed on widows, and a man who is from a lower caste and a follower of Mahatma Gandhi.

At times this movie was hilarious and Ian and I were laughing. The cinematography is absolutely stunning and Ian kept pointing out parts of the movie where he had been, and saying that watching this film made him feel nostalgic. By the end of the movie I was seriously crying...it was very heavy, so sad, yet so happy. Truly a powerful film. Its in subtitles, but there isn't that much talking that it will make you lose focus. Apparently this is a trilogy and there are 2 other films that come before this one, Fire, and Earth.

Due to the controversy of this film, many Hindu fundamentalists were outraged and the film director, Deepa Mehta was sent many death threats that she had to stop showing the film in India years ago. However, this film was a great success at the Toronto Film Festival. Just go watch it...damn!