They were not allowed by the Benarasi Hindu extremists to shoot for the movie in its said location, the Benaras ghaats, because of the said controversial content.
They shot secretly in Srilanka, the last I heard. Honestly though, I dissent. About the hue and cry, I mean, but that’s another story.
Set in and around 1939, This is a story of widows belonging to four age groups - Chuhiya (8 years old, if I remember right) - Sarala, Kalyani (in her 20’s) - Liza Ray, Shakuntala (in her 30’s) - Seema Biswas, and Madhumati (in her 80’s) - Manorama. There were other women in the last 2 age groups too. A motley crew, if you will.
The film touches upon the loneliness, unquestioned devotion, desperation, prostitution, child prostitution, child marriage, Gandhism, you-name-it-you-have-it matters in the 2 odd hours it runs for.
Raghuveer Yadav as Gulabi the Eunuch, it goes without saying, was a noteworthy performer. The pimp for the widows who would find customers (usually old, rich men) and bring the news to Madhumati, who in turn will send Kalyani to them.
I must admit that Liza Ray surpassed my expectations. I had seen her in Bollywood Hollywood. She is one of the prettiest around, but not the greatest performer, pardon me. Definitely not someone to be thought of in the role of a widow. Mainstream cinema folks make so much noise about understated performances, be it Aishwarya Rai in Raincoat or Ajay Devgan. Frankly, I never thought their performances any major feat. I think Liza can actually give them a lesson or two. Mind you, she wasn’t brilliant or anything, but she was adorable as Kalyani. And she managed to look breathtakingly beautiful throughout, even when her hair was sheared mercilessly by Madhumati.
I didn’t find anything remarkable with John Abraham’s performance as an idealistic young man, but his character was quite important. In fact, Kalyani’s fate would have been different if her puppy Kaalu hadn’t run away and she hadn’t had a chance encounter with this man. The ever romantic Kalyani, waiting for her prince to steal her away from the life of misery in to the life of her dreams. But could she have it? You will have to see the movie to know it.
There were more characters sprinkled throughout the movie, like Kulbhushan Kharbanda as a Pujari who read out the holy scriptures to the widows early in the morning, Waheeda Rehman as John Abraham’s doting mother, and Vinay Pathak as his British-loving friend in seemingly insignificant roles.
It is very easy to emulate the classic framework, but really difficult to ’’make’’ a Classic Film. Same is the case with Water. You can see glimpses of Ray and Kurosawa in the cinematography and costumes, but it doesn’t exactly touch the chord. Glimpses is all they remain at. But then again, maybe our lady Deepa Mehta was too scared to stick to the original script and played it safe, which in turn made the movie a little bland. One will never know since the whole movie was finished undercover.
Also, the music has been terribly underutilized. In the hands of a more seasoned director, AR Rahman’s semi-classical tunes would have yielded better results. The only song that was done justice to was the delightful ’’Sawan Aayo Re’’ with Kalyani and Chuhiya kidding around in the loft enjoying the untimely rain.
The movie has a few more such moments. The old woman fixated on laddus and sweets from her wedding ceremony. The time when Madhumati sends Chuhiya with Gulabi and Shakuntala finds out about it. Nonetheless, it leaves you with the feeling that there could have been more; more dialogs even. The film was sometimes too silent and silence does not always convey messages, it is not always creepy. There could have been much more that could have been conveyed with words. And the editing was botchy in places too, which didn’t help the case anyhow.
Kudos to the child artiste Sarala who doubtlessly steals the show with her effortless performance.
All-in-all, worth a watch, but the DVD, you may want to pass.