The Peninsular
Deepa Mehta’s Water hits the screens
Cinema-goers finally had the chance to see Indian-born Deepa Mehta's controversial Oscar-nominated
film Water -about the plight of Hindu widows-as the
movie opened yesterday across the country. The movie, the shooting of which had to be scrapped in 2000 following violent protests by Hindu extremists, was nominated in last month's Academy Awards in the best foreign
language film category. The Hindi-language movie is being screened in 110
cinemas across India, the film's distributor Ravi Chopra said. "It has really been a long road-first to get it made, and then to get it on the screen here," said Chopra, a director himself, who is known for making socially conscious movies. The movie tells the story of a group of widows forced to live as destitute "servants of god", supporting themselves either as beggars or as prostitutes, during British colonial times. Hindu extremists have denounced it as blasphemous. The Toronto-based Mehta, who was burnt in effigy and faced death threats when she was trying to film the movie in India, had voiced apprehension about what might happen at cinemas here when it was released. But Chopra said he was not worried and that no special security arrangements had been made. "There have been no problems. If there are, we will deal with them," he said. Mehta began shooting the film in the holy Hindu city of Varanasi, but mobs destroyed the movie set, claiming the film was part of a plot to damage the image of Hinduism. She abandoned plans to shoot the movie in India in January 2000, after the state government of Uttar Pradesh-where Varanasi is located-declared it could not guarantee law and order. Mehta finally completed the film in Sri Lanka four years later with a different cast, and it premiered at the Toronto film festival in 2005.
More reviews about the The Peninsular