The eldest widow then sends Chuyia to a much older man who rapes her. Although the film overall was extremely sad, the ending was uplifting. One of the widows brings Chuyia to Narayan, so that she could escape the horrors of her life to come. The ending was extremely emotional, but I was pleased that the ending was more upbeat rather than depressing. It gave the viewer hope that Chuyia would have a better life. The movie was really depressing, because I really believed that there would be a happy ending.
It got really sad when Kalyani committed suicide. I think Kalyani also committed suicide because of what the head of the ashram said. After she left Narayan she returned to the ashram late at night, there the head said stay there the eunuch will be there soon.
Since Kalyani had enough of the job she probably figured that it was better for her to die. He believed that widows did not need to suffer. In the movie he says that widows are strangers to love, and no one should be strangers to love. This implies that he wanted the widows to remarry. I was really happy when Kalyani agreed to marry Narayan. I thought the movie was going to end with their marriage and them taking care of Chuyia, but it was not meant to be.
It was especially sad because after Kalyani killed her self, Narayan came to the ashram to take her home with him. He decided to leave afterward. The scene that impacted me most was when the eunuch says that he will take her to her parents.
When the head of the ashram first said it I knew something was fishy. They had followed this traditions for so long, now suddenly she was free. At the end of the movie I felt there was still hope for Chuyia. In my opinion the protagonists did a very good job in acting these scenes. When I first saw the movie I was really touched by the issues that widows went through. For instance, when Chuiya first got to the ashram it was unusual for her to be in that place. At first I had many questions because as Chuiya was new to the ashram I was curious to know why the women who were widows had to shave their heads and why did they have scars on their forehead.
Towards the end of the movie, I was able to comprehend why these widows had to do this. It broke my heart to see a child at such a young age be going through these issues. Didi, who acted like a mother tried to help her and she was devastated when she found out that Chuiya went across the river.
Another very important character in the movie was Kalyani. She was a prostitute that had to make money for the ashram by selling herself. She played an important role because she was the opposite of the widow women living in the ashram. Unlike the rest she had her long hair and pet, this was very symbolic because it demonstrated the fact that prostitutes were considered dirty and unholy.
It was interesting in the movie to see how a widow woman fell in love and wanted to get remarried. I liked the fact that there was some romance in the movie and I learned a lot from this film because it not only entertained you, but also informed you. For instance, there were also symbols that meant something like the bird in the cage. However, when Chuiya kills the bird it shows that the bird is free but in heaven now. Overall, I really enjoyed this film, even though I expected a happy ending between Kalyani and the man.
It was very strong in the way that it portrayed the lives of widows who have to live in Ashram. It made me really sad that they had to be secluded from society and were looked down upon. The part that affected me the most was when Chuyia was send to the other side of the river to make money as a prostitute, since she was only eight years old! I was completely shocked and disgusted by that, and it brought tears to my eyes.
Another thing that really made me sad was when Kalyani committed suicide. In Hindu religion the widows have four options once their husband dies one is to burn with their husbands, the other is to go into prostitution, to marry their husbands brother and the last is to join an institution called ashram because widows are believe to have cause the death of their husband in their past lives.
The main characters, Chuyia, Shakuntala Didi S. Chuyia is 8 years old who married an older man, he died and her family thought it was best for her to join the ashram, there she found her mother figure Didi S who is devoted by practicing her religion but is conflicted with it and her faith and Kalyani a beautiful women and friend.
Narayan a law student who had felled in love with Kalyani, they had a fair behind his parents back. The widows in the ashram sleep on concrete floors, wear only white, shave their heads, and eat very little.
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In Fire the forbidden love is between two women and Mehta explores the politics of sexuality not just between the same-sex couple, but within the dynamics of two passionless arranged marriages. The second film in the trilogy is Earth set in during the dissolution of the British Indian Empire. It was a time of enormous religious tension between the Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims as The nature of forbidden love explored in Earth is between a man and woman with different religions, with Mehta exploring the politics of nationalism and how this can manifest in religious extremism and violence.
In Water the forbidden love is the widow Kalyani falling in love with another man, which is seen to be an act of betrayal against her dead husband. Mehta explores the politics of religion to highlight how religious hypocrisy is used to ensure women are undermined and made subservient for economic purposes.
The first of the three protagonists in Water is Chuyia, a child who has become a widow as a result of an arranged marriage to a man she never met. At the beginning of the film she is presented as something of a free and rebellious spirit despite the absurdity and unfairness of the situation she is placed in.
Happily eating a sugar cane she is introduced gleefully playing with the feet of her dying husband as he is being transported. However, even once in the temple Chuyia stands out as a force of life with her head painted by Shakuntala in bright yellow turmeric and the flurry of quick edits as she runs through the temple, providing a playful and disruptive break to the static and slow camera movements that are otherwise used within the temple.
The sense of playfulness within Chuyia is expressed throughout the film through her constant movement and the movement of the camera during many of the scenes she is featured in. What happens to Chuyia comments on the dual symbolism of the Ganges in the film to purify and to take away life. While the Ganges is the site for purification for Hindu people, it is also the passage to the upper class homes where Chuyia is tricked into prostitution. While water is traditionally a symbol of change and progression, in Water the Ganges ultimately becomes like institutionalised religion — a destructive force that destroys lives while continuing the pretence of being about purity.
Throughout Water Kalyani is compared to Chuyia as an older version of the woman Chuyia may have become if she stayed in Varanasi. Kalyani is also a widow who was married to a man she never met and she was being prostituted by Madhumati Manorama , the exploitive older widow who runs the temple. The graphic matches establish the strong relationship between Kalyani and Chuyia, and the danger of Chuyia sharing the same fate. Mehta is not attacking religion in Water but critiquing the way it is used for economic and political gain.
She compares herself to a lotus flower, which is a divine symbol in ancient Asian traditions representing the virtues of sexual purity and non-attachment. When Kalyani first appears in the film she is shot from a low angle so she majestically appears above the rest of the temple. Chuyia even momentarily thinks that she is an angel. Kalyani is also shot from a similar low angle during the various scenes with Narayan, although scenes when she is in the temple and he is on the street are often framed so she appears behind the bars on the balcony to give the impression of her being imprisoned.
Kalyani is also strongly associated with the colour blue and says when she remarries she will wear blue, the colour of Krishna. After Kalyani dies, Chuyia is then the youngest widow there, so the Hijra with whom Madhumati prostituted Kalyani takes Chuyia across the water where she will knowingly be abused. As much as the viewer hopes that someone will find her in time, she is only found by Shankuntala when it is too late.
This horrible, disgusting thing that she has gone through is really an example of the lack of care or empathy that widows face. This also makes the viewer wonder if it is something that Kalyani might have faced when she entered the ashram. Either way, it is a vicious cycle that makes it evident to the viewer that the harsh treatment of widows needs to be stopped.
The film also frames all of this through a transnational view. To start, the film was filmed in both Hindi and English and was presented to English speaking countries. Because of this, we can understand that this film was presented as a call to the world about the plight of widows in India. Even though there are women who hold a modernist view and are not sent away, there are still many, many traditional widows throughout India.
What I appreciated most about the film was how well it depicted these difficult topics, but presented them in a way that was easy for the international viewer to digest.
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