Review : Water

[amazon_link id=”B000GIXE86″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]Rating : Average (3/5)
Genre : Drama Year : 2004
Running time : 1 hr and 44 minutes
Director : Deepa Mehta
Cast : John Abraham, Lisa Ray, Seema Biswas, Manorama, Waheeda Rehman, Raghuvir Yadav, Sarala, Kulbhushan Kharbanda

WATER : Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink !

With “Water” Mehta completes her Trilogy, the controversial “Fire” and the fabulous “Earth” being the earlier two movies. And comparitively, this film is a let-down. While “Fire” was about a lesbian relationship, and “Earth” based upon the novel “Cracking India”, “Water” is the story of the Vrindavan widows. While I applaud Mehta for making a film on this very controversial but important topic, after seeing the film, I feel she tilts the movie for the international film festival circuit, sacrificing quality.

9 year old Chuhiya (Sarala) is newly widowed. With her husband, a man she barely knew, now dead she is sent to the widow ashram to live out the rest of her life. There she meets other widows, all with their shaven heads, measly belongings, frugal lifestyles, doomed to exist in misery. All are older than her, but many have been widowed at early ages (as she finds out later), and now live their lives in penury. Among them is Madhumati (Manorama), the tyrannical, older widow who pimps out the younger, beautiful widow Kalyani (Ray) via eunuch Gulabi (Yadav). Shakuntala (Biswas) is a middle-aged widow in the ashram, the only one who has guts enough to defy Madhumati, but is not willing to stir the waters.

Feisty Chuhiya finds a surrogate mother in Shakuntala, and an older sister in Kalyani. When Kalyani falls in love with Narayan (Abraham) and wishes to leave the ashram to marry him, Madhumati objects but backs down when Shakuntala lends her support to Kalyani. Kalyani leaves to be united with Gandhi-vadi idealist Narayan, but is dis-illusioned when she finds out that he is the son of a wealthy businessman to whom she has been pimped out. On returning when she is faced with the prospect of prostituting for Madhumati, she ends her life. Madhumati then decides to trick young Chuhiya into prostitution . . .

This film has a reasonably strong storyline, but fails because of poor acting from it’s lead pair – John Abraham and Lisa Ray. Seema Biswas, Sarala and Raghuveer Yadav do very well, and pretty much carry this film, along with strong support from stalwarts like Waheeda Rehman and Kulbhushan Kharbanda. Yesteryear actress Manorama is all bluster with no great attempts at finesse. Lisa Ray looks like an urban model, and very little like the character she is supposed to portray. A plain sari cannot hide Ms. Ray’s non-Indian looks, or her accented Hindi. John Abraham looks like the well-read (Bengali ?) babu, but can’t inject realism into Narayan’s character. I am convinced that the presence of strong lead actors (like Rani Mukherjee/Nandita Das/Aamir Khan etc.) could have made this a great film.

The locales look fine, although it is a pity that Mehta couldn’t shoot in India, because of political opposition. The music is mild enough to go un-noticed (I can’t recall it). The film is on the whole, slow-moving – not sure what is at failt there – script or screenplay, and could have done with some tightening up to keep interest. As far as the emotional factor goes, the film does move you – the wretched plight of the widows does get to you. What is absolutely saddening about this is the fact that in watching this it is brought home to you how Indian society actually values women.

So, this film is watchable. However, if looking for arresting, path-breaking cinema, look elsewhere.