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 Mesmerizing, Moving, and Beautifully Tragic Jul 31, 2010
Truly mesmerizing, I was captivated the entire time. A quote from the film sums up the message I received, "What do you do when your faith and your conscience are conflicted?" Always follow your conscience I say. If your faith and your conscience are conflicted, it is time to reassess. Faith should comfort you, not make you turn a blind eye to what you know is wrong. But out of the tragedy that results from their ancient religious laws comes the resiliency of the human spirit, the innocence of youth, and the blindness of love.
The music is amazing and the most beautiful scenes for me were the non-verbal ones set to music.
This is probably my favorite international film and definitely the most moving film I've seen in a long time.
Extraordinary Jun 20, 2010
The moment this film ended, I e-mailed all my friends and family to urge them to watch it. Everything about this movie is five stars -- the story, the acting, cinematography, music. It was a privilege to behold. The child actor is astonishing. I was hardly aware I was reading subtitles, this film is so visually captivating.
If there were 10 stars to give this film, I would.
 A pleasure for your senses. Mar 13, 2010
This is the first movie of Deepa Methta's trilogy that I watch. I have never seen any of her work before, and I'm really pleased and impressed with her talent. The photography and music are a delight for the senses, and both directing and acting are superb. The movie awoke in me such paradoxical emotions... I was delighted with the images, landscapes, actors, dialogues, but at the same time I became more and more indignant as the film went by.
I can't digest this kind of treatment towards women. It really amazes me how so many and different cultures around the world think of women as second class citizens, or worse. As impure, as sinners, as disposable objects. And regardless of the time period this is the current treatment for many women around the world. They get ostracized, shunned or killed based on religious beliefs. And in a less obvious way, but it also happens in modern industrialized countries. Still, the movie is a beautiful piece of art worth watching. And as a woman, I do feel empathy for all those women who have to go through this kind of experiences in their lives, and I admire them for enduring them with their heads held high.
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Water Oct 25, 2009
Interesting title for a moving story...that must be why; it moves you to think about how grateful to be born a Westerner. Life as a widow can be painful as an adult imagine being a widow at eight and not even realise that you are. Well worth watching.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Insightful social commentary & thoroughly absorbing Jun 17, 2009
Deepa Mehta's "Water" is the final part of a trilogy of movies [the other two being "Fire" and "Earth"]. All three explore certain facets of Indian culture and are excellent social commentaries.
In "Water", the film is set during the time of British Colonial rule of India, known as the British Raj. The year is 1938, and despite British rule, there is a prevalence of child marriages. Many young girls are married off to much older men, and one such unfortunate is Chuyia [Sarala Kariyawasam]. She is an eight-year-old who has just been widowed and as per the custom of the time, is packed off to a widow's ashram to spend her life expiating her 'sins'. The other motivations for consigning the widows to ashrams is to offset their families' financial responsibilities and also alleviate the social stigma of having a widow in the family [ widows are frequently seen a symbols of bad luck, a perception that has lifted somewhat in contemporary Indian society but not altogether dispelled].
The presiding authority over the ashram is Madhumati {Manorama] an obese and completely ruthless lady who rules over the ashram with the aid of a pimp, Gulabi [Raghuvir yadav],and a eunuch. In order to keep the ashram functioning [apparently donations are insufficient] and Madhumati well-fed, the old witch prostitutes one of the ashram's residents, young widow Kalyani [an ethereally beautiful Lisa Ray]. Because of Kalyani's economic importance, she is the only one of the widows who is allowed to keep her hair [all the others, including young Chuyia have their heads shorn]. Then there is the literate widow [not many of the women can read] Shakuntala [portrayed by the talented Seema Biswas] who is battling her own inner demons.Shakuntala finds it hard to reconcile her devout Hindu beliefs with the fact that she abhors being a widow. Young Chuyia on the other hand, keeps thinking that she will be eventually taken away from the ashram by her mother, having no clue as to how dire her situation really is.
The story gets moving with the introduction of another character, Narayan [John Abraham], a staunch follower of Mahatma Gandhi, and who comes from an affluent and influential family. When Narayan and Kalyani meet, sparks fly but both are very much aware of social taboos which hold them back from each other.Kalyani begins to refuse servicing clients, inciting Madhumati's anger. Narayan finds a way to meet Kalyani and the pair make plans to get away, a secret that Kalyani divulges to Chuyia. The young child accidentally blurts out the secret to Madhumati and this sets the stage for a series of tragic events.
Beautifully filmed, the story serves as a powerful social commentary on the plight of widows in India as set during the late 1930s. Though widows are much better off in contemporary India, their situation is still dire, with lives spent in poverty and under oppression, primarily in the rural areas. With "Water", director Mehta has given us a remarkably human story of substance that lingers in one's consciousness long after the credits have rolled.
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