Water
Water
Context:
The director Deepa Mehta, as a part of her Wind, Fire, Water trilogy, wants to expose the mistreatment of women in India. Mehta is a humanitarian director who's primary goal is to inform in the most realistic sense possible. Although set in the 1930's, women are still being put in homes for being widows, and are essentially exiled from the rest of society. Mehta attempts to inform her viewers by following the story of an eight year old indian girl who is put in the house after the husband she never met passed away. In addition, you also follow the stories of two other women, one who is rebelling against the norm of widow behavior and another who regrets her life and tries to make it better for others.
Content:
The film deals with womens banishment by society and the roles they must play because of it. The young woman, Kalyani, refuses to keep her head shaved, a known indicator of being a widow, and the woman who runs the house sells her to 'customers' for sex. Kalyani meets a man who loves her despite the fact she's a widow, and acts on her own agency and rebels. She doesn't want to be a sex slave, or a lonely widow, so she does everything in her power to change it. With the help of and older widow, Kunti (?) she is able to escape the hold the place has on her. Kunti also acts on her own agency, in an attempt to free both Chuyia and Kalyani. When Baba, the head widow, locks Kalyani in her room so she cannot re-marry, Kunti is the one that gets the keys to let her out. Also, after Chuyia is sent to a 'customer' by Baba, Kunti takes her to watch Ghandi speak at the train station. She knows that Chuyia has no hope of another life if she stays in the town, so she gives Chuyia to Narayan, the man Kalyani was going to marry, so that she can have a better chance of having a good life. The women in the film struggle to find their identities in a culture that refuses to allow women any rights.
Form
Deepa Mehta used a wide variety of filmic construction methods to make the film powerful. She let the natural environment of India be as colorful as possible, while keeping the characters more dull. As she says, she did it to show that there are bad things inside of seemingly beautiful things. I think also, that the brightness can be seen as an outlet; an outlet to a place that the widows would rather be. When Kalyani meets Narayan under the large tree, the sun is beaming and the colors of nature are vibrant, as if they are trying to be a part of that beautiful world even though they are stuck in their dull white sari’s. The opening scene is of a lily pad farm with the sun rising over the trees behind it. The rising sun could be interpreted as the birth of new hope for the women as a new day begins. The new day brings about the wave of change that is accompanied with Ghandi’s movement. Another symbolic tool Mehta used was the correlation of thunder and love. Whenever Kalyani and Narayan were going to run into each other or going to meet, there was always thunder in the distance. Thunder, obviously, is paired with lightening which is a destructive force. This is to say that although their love itself may not be destructive, there is something else that will destroy it and cause them pain. Mother natures actions were not the only symbolism used. Seeing as how the title of the movie is water, it is not surprising that water is included in almost every scene. Water is used for drinking, traveling to the other side of the river, as a blessing, as a way of cleansing and even a means of death. Metha makes water take on many roles beyond just for human needs. It can be a means to cleanse and wash away dirt, but it also functions as a preface for bad things to come (such as rain or the river Kalyani drowns herself in).