Water (Hindi)
A little girl is awakened by her father, who asks if she remembers getting married. She says no. Anyway, her father says, her husband is dead. She's a widow now. "For how long?" she asks, but she doesn't get an answer. Her father can't bear to tell her that she'll be a widow for the rest of her life. This is India in 1938, and ancient Hindu texts command that widows remain chaste and unmarried, lest they be reincarnated as jackals (!). The girl, named Chuyia (played by a little cherub named Sarala), is the central figure in "Water," the third part in Deepa Mehta's political trilogy that began with "Fire" and "Earth." Mehta, an Indian woman who moved to Canada in her 20s, creates a powerfully real (but cinematically lovely) view of 1930s India, at a time when Gandhi was coming to prominence and urging Indians to get out from under British rule. Indian women, however, particularly widows, remained oppressed.
To read the rest of this review, click on the relevant link below.
More reviews about the Water (Hindi)