Simply A Masterpiece

Better Late Then Never

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

The people who make a difference in this world are nothing more than people who listen to their conscience. This is a profound idea found in a movie that made those people who listened to their conscience the focal point of the movie. That movie is Water, written and directed by Deepa Mehta. While filming, Mehta received many death threats for her work on this controversial film focused on the concepts of misogyny and ostracism of female widows in India. Set in 1938 India under British rule, it begins with young seven year old Chuyia (Sarala Kariyawasam) being awoken and told by her father that her arranged husband has just died, making her a widow. She is a victim of the previously common practice of child marriage. Then she is whisked off to an ashram in rural Varanasi where many other widows also live. Widows in the Hindu India have a lower position in society. The fourteen widows in the ashram are expected to live out the rest of their lives in poverty, hardship, and worshiping of Gods. They live in a tiny two-floor house, living there to repent bad karma and to relieve their families of financial and emotional hardships. The only reason why I didn't give the movie a 10/10 is because of the multiple scenes that dragged on for a little bit too long and it was hard for me to understand some parts. For example, it was hard to understand why she demanded the boat to turn around and why she drowned herself in the river was unclear to me because I couldn't keep track of the men outside of the ashram, besides Narayan, that later turned out to be her clients. Overall, this movie has a beautiful and moving plot that uncovers many truths in the Hindu society for Indian women. I had known that in the Hindu religion, women that have husbands passed away, were burned on occasion, but I would have never known about the mental and emotional pain felt by these excluded women. For example, Narayan's mother's reaction to his announcement of them getting married, the rude street vendor who wanted to get rid of Chuyia, Madhumati who locks Kalyani away in a room so that she can't get remarried, and the deplorable men who exploited Kalyani and Chuyia. With Deepa Mehta's film, all these hardships have been intelligently brought to life for the thirty-four million widows in India since 2001 that are still living under social, economic, and cultural impoverishment engraved upon them two-thousand years ago by the Sacred Texts of Manu. She highlights characters Narayan, Kalyani, Shakuntala, and Chuyia in the film as people who speak out about these rules that bound widows. This is what makes them different from other people, they act on their consciousness.

Deepa Mehta is an amazing film maker who's trilogy (Fire, Earth, and Water) give a glimpse into the struggles women in India faced with their own identity and independence. Water, my favorite of in the trilogy, is a powerful film set in India around the mid 1930's. It tells the story of a ashram of widows and how they are condemned to be outcasts because their husbands died. At this time of arranged and child marriages, it was not uncommon for young child brides to be wed to older men. If the men died and another brother did not marry the widow, she would be sent to live in the Ashram. The widows would be condemned to a strict life of poverty and worship. Surviving from what little money they got from begging. It would be considered unlucky to interact with them if you were pregnant. They were also had to wear all white as a way to set them apart from society. It is almost like they are living ghosts. Although at the time the movie takes place, it was legal in many provinces, it was very taboo. This movie follows a young child bride who fights against the role of being a widow that society places upon her.

Such a wasted opportunity!Such potential!All wasted on a cheap love story. With a ethnic backdrop. A bleached backdrop.You have a prepuber girl at the end of life. Already been married, buried a husband and now awaits death together with other women, both old and young, but not that young. And this drama is dulled with images of child games.In the 21st century you still have group rape, yet the pariah can move around freely. The women are poor, but not that poor. Nobody is starving. The atrocious scenes where they burn the dead bodies are idealized with candle lights and night on the river. The stench and body parts are nowhere to be sensed.It took me almost one hour to notice this is a themed soap opera. Where people are clean and shampoo daily. Where everything is deodorized and gods are left untouched. It's not about religion turning people into beasts, it's about helping a poor soul in a sea of sorrow. Disgusting!It could have been a clean love story. Life in a Metro type. At the end I was grateful for not having the happy singing and dancing that goes in almost every Indian movie. But having every scene with at least two large swastikas made even that ray of light vanish. I lied. After less than a hour and a half they start singing, dancing and smiling.Contact me with Questions, Comments or Suggestions ryitfork @ bitmail.ch

Water is set near the river through the city of Varansi.Chuyia, who is about 8 or 9 years when the man she married died, although she does not remember her him. Conforming to Hindu customs she is taken to a house of widows to live out her life - although she does not want to go.The house is dominated by two women - the fat domineering Madhumati and the strong, confident head of the house, Shakuntala. In the house, she also meets the beautiful Kalyani - who secretly owns a puppy which she shares with Chuyia. One day, the puppy runs of, and Chuyia runs in pursuit. Narayan catches the puppy and brings him back to Kalyani and is struck by her.Naryan comes from a very rich family and is becoming a lawyer, and is also a progressive and follower of Mohandas Gandhi. He wants India to modernise and to be freed from the traditions he thinks are backwards. So he is willing to break to taboos against widows.Thus, the romance between Kalyani and Narayan starts.Central to the film, are the problems and stigmata faced by the widows. Since they can't work, they must beg to survive. This is often not enough, so Madhumati pimps out the pretty widows to wealthy men in the city. And sometimes the girls being pimped out are very young.When Chuyia first meets Madhumati, she remarks that she was Chuyia's age when she first came to the house of widows. Later, remarks that her husband died when was first having sex with her - indicating that one of the problems is the sexual exploitation of children.There are many cultural and political reference that I was not able to understand. The cultural include the tree under which Kalyani and Narayan embrace.The political element is also very strong - the veneration of Mohandas Gandhi and the Congress Party as the saviours of India. There were also many religious references and comments that I did not understand, that made the film controversial. This is also given away by the quoting of statistics at the end of the film.The cinematography, the soundtrack and the acting were all brilliant. It was tightly directed and very well paced. Deepa Mehta has certainly shown her talents as a director, and I will endeavor to see more of her films.