Film Review: Water

Water tells the story of a group of widows living in an ashram (compound) in 1930s India. The movie starts with Chuyia, a seven-year-old girl who is widowed, although she doesn't even remember getting married. In a heart-wrenching scene her parents leave her with a group of elderly, mean widows where she will inevitably lead a life of poverty and self-denial.

At first she fights her confinement in the ashram and speaks daily of her return home. She meets Kalyani, a beautiful young adult widow who has been at the ashram since she was nine. Kalyani, not like the other widows, befriends Chuyia and even shares her contraband pet dog. While Kalyani and Chuyia are bathing the dog in the Ganges, they meet Narayan, a follower of Gandhi and recent law school graduate who falls in love with Kalyani, considered a grave sin. At the same time, the ashram's leader, Didi Madhumati, pimps out Kalyani to the local gentry (artistocracy) to fund all of the widows.

Eventually Chuyia realizes she will never return home, Kalyani and Narayan's relationship comes to a head, and Shakuntala makes a momentous decision. Water is about a culture in transition, and the casualties and beneficiaries stemming from societal upheaval.

Favorite Parts:

• Scenes that show the development of Kalyani and Chuyia's relationship
  
• When Didi Shakuntala takes Chuyia to see Gandhi 
• Kalyani's goodness and devoutness
  
• Didi Shakuntala's inner struggle between her faith and her conscience
  
• I'm a sucker for love: Kalyani and Narayan's relationship
• Didi Madhumati's character. She is crude and cruel. She seems to have no virtues and yet still manages to be a multi-faceted character.
  
• The loss of womanhood or nurturance that the widows experience after being shut off from the rest of the world for decades
• How it's a window into 1930s Indian culture and the Hindu religion
  
• The cinematography
  
• Indian music

Who this film is for: This movie is for anyone who is looking to feel grateful. I learned about the pain of dissapointment, Indian culture, the beauty of resilience, the struggle to maintain faith, and the importance of equality. If you're looking for two hours of laughs, choose another movie. Although the film ends with hope, it has a generally sober tone. The movie is in Hindi and has subtitiles, but I don't think they detract from the film. Those who are interested in women's issues will particularly like this movie.

Rating: PG-13 for thematic material involving sexual situations and brief drug usage (it looked like a cigar to me). I never felt uncomfortable in the film. There was no swearing and no sexual scenes were shown.

Excerpts:

Bhagavati: "To talk about the truth is easy but to live by it is not."

Narayana: "All the old traditions are dying out."
Kalyani: "But what is good should not die out."
Narayana: "And who will decide what is good and what is not?"

Trailer: