Water, is truly sensitively made and beautifully crafted movie. Deepa Mehta has completed her trilogy in the true sense. It belongs to a completely different genre of movies, very different from the trash that passes off as ’cinema’ these days.
Water revolves around the stigma attached to widows in the 1930’s, detachment from all worldly happiness and living a life of a thousand deaths. The protagonist is mainly ’chuhiya’, a 7 seven year old widow, brilliantly potrayed by the child artist, Sarala. Her young spirit crushed under societal traditions. From this background arises a subtle love story of Narayan (John Abraham) and a rebellious widow, Kayani ( Lisa Ray). The casting is impeccable especially the characters of Shakuntala (Seema Biswas) and Chuhiya ( Sarala).
There are moments during the film in which one gasps out aloud, thanking god, we dont live in those times. And then, at the end of the film they state that there are millions of widows as per 2001 census, living that life, even today! A true eye opener, this one. Must-watch!