Water

I finally saw Deepa mehta's oscar-nominated Water, and really wondered what was it that made it better than Rang De Basanti. Water was at least nominated, RDB didn't even get to the semi-finalist list of 9.

The movie no doubt is very tender. Though my feeling that the movie was starting with an Om-Namah-Shivay Nataraja statue immersed in subliming dry ice sequence (the feeling was caused by the starting music) turned out to be quite wrong, Deepa Mehta immediately started shocking, disgusting, and impressing the audience with a Mistry-esque detailed account of the rituals of widowhood.

The movie becomes rather drab after Chuhiye, the 10-year old girl who has become the latest inmate at the विधाश्रम, starts liking the people she meets. Madhumati, the strong, bossy, and fat head of the place, strangely reminds me of Rita Khanna at our school. She is cute and puddly but her ganja-smoking character is so much less so. Lisa Ray looked very foreign. Frankly, she looks better with cropped hair later on in the movie (all widows are supposed to have shaved heads, but because Ray as the prostitute is the bread-earner for the ashram, she has to keep her hair long and beautiful. However, as a punishment for trying to re-marry, Maudhumati cuts off her long hair. And then Lisa starts looking even more beautiful!) John tries to carry off his role well, his character loves Gandhi, Kalidas, and the Indian flute. And of course, Kalyani a.k.a Ray. When she finds out that her lover's father is the same person whom she's compelled to visit every night, she commits suicide. In a very strange way. I mean, one doesn't just pass into water and hope not to survive.

The character, and the actor, who reallly holds the movie together is Seema Biswas, as the confident, pious, and one could say, smart widow at the ashram. She once wonders aloud, "should we still listen to our conscience even when it goes against our religion?" She's probably the most adorable character, and thereby the most likable actor, in the movie. Commanding respect but never really wielding authority. Funnily, when told about the Widow Remarriage Act, she asks, "हमें क्यों नहीं बताया इसके बारे में?" Is she the real protaganist, and Ray and Abraham merely supporting cast?

Too much for the hyper-hyped A.R.Rahman music. The songs are rather short, but what we need to commend is how Rahman brings out the provincial rusticity through them. The lyrics are amazing, and the movie could have done with a few more of these.

Is Deepa Mehta commenting on a social issue? Most probably, because even though the movie is set in the late 1930's, the social attitude remain the same. Had I told my grandmother that I wanted to marry a widow, her reaction would have been far sharper than that of Waheeda Rehman (i think she was playing JA's mother). And as the director points out, thereare still 34million hindu widows, amny of whom are made to abide by the Laws of Manu. Perhaps it was this socio-political commentary which the VHP used to prohibit its shooting in Benaras. Instead, it had to be shot in Sri Lanka. Hats off to the production team- not one indication that the land is Lanka, except maybe the south indian mother-daughter duo at the temple, offering alms to the widows...

Climax is interesting, but not gripping. Seema Biswas gives Chuhiya up to Gandhiji through his sewak Abraham. This follows a rather brusque Gandhian speech, almost as if to validate Mehta's point that it is the Gandhian era.

Overall, it was a rather slow movie. I'd give it, say, 6 on 10?