Fella_shibby This is perhaps one of the most gripping films I have ever seen. The theme of water is so beautifully intertwined with the story in the location shots, boats across a lake/river and the ever falling rain to deliver an impact upon the characters and their journey.The treatment of these widows, and the intense life that these women are forced to live was eye opening.John Abraham gave a good performance. Lisa Ray was decent. Chuiya was great. With its top-notch acting, cinematography and music, Water is definitely worth the watch. Excellent effort by Deepa Mehta. Awesome cinematography Giles Nuttgens. Nicely edited by Colin Monie. Screenplay by Anurag Kashyap was awesome so were his dialogues. Set decoration by Rumana hamied n Lal harindranath was brilliant. Good music by Mychael Danna n A.R Rehman. Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times @ The film is lovely in the way Satyajit Ray's films are lovely and the best elements of Water involve the young girl and the experiences seen through her eyes.

Galina "Water" (2005) that was written and directed by Deepa Metha, the Indian- born Canadian film director and screenwriter, is a final part of her Elements trilogy, Fire, Earth, and Water. Each film deals with serious and often unknown outside of India problems that the country has inherited over its long history of religious traditions that always played highly important role in all aspects of Indian society. Water, a heart breaking tale of Indian widows, is set during the early 1940s and tells the compelling story of an eight-year-girl who learns that she became a widow. Her parents married her when she was an infant to an unknown man but were taking care of her until she was old enough to become a wife to the husband she never met. After his death, according to the holy laws the little girl had only three choices in her life: to burn with her husband on the funeral pyre, to marry his younger brother or to become untouchable and spend the rest of her life in an ashram - a shelter for widows at the temple, on the banks of the great river.Delicately beautiful and colorful film introduces the viewers to several unfortunate widows of different ages who whose families have abandoned them forever. The women have to live together and use any means possible for surviving. Pain, grief, loss, sacrifices are the essential parts of their daily struggles. Deepa Metha deserves every praise and award she has received for her memorable and passionate film which may shock the viewers who would not imagine what choices were available to a woman - widow back in the days and even now in some rural parts of India. But the film also praises the beauty of nature, joy of friendship, and eventually, it brings hope for better future for those women and their country.Not only is Water an exquisite work of art, it is an important social statement. So important, indeed, that the Indian government interfered with the production process, canceled the funding of the film, restricted Metha to shoot in India, and did not stop the fundamentalists' riots that threatened the physical violence toward the female director and the members of the crew.If the things have improved in India, as the officials proclaim, why the government hated so much just the idea of the film and caused all kinds of obstacles for Deepa Metha and her crew?

Andrew Horn Water by Deepha Mehta is the third film in a trilogy about India. Earth is about the partition of India and Pakistan. Fire was about lesbianism among traditional Indian Women. While shooting for the movie "Water" the sets of the movie were destroyed they had to move the entire production to Sri Lanka. The movie Water is set in 1938 while India is still under British rule. Chuyia, a seven-year old girl who just lost her husband, is sent to an ashram for Hindu widows to spend the rest of her life in renunciation. The ashram is owned by Madhumati and she has a business with a pimp named Gulabi to prostitute Kalyani and fellow widow at the Ashram. Chuyia does not know that according to Holy Hindu Scriptures she has been destined to live here for the rest of her life, for when a woman's husband dies', she has three options: One, to marry her husband's younger brother, if his family permits; two, to kill herself on his funeral pyre; three, to live a life of celibacy, discipline, and solitude amongst her own kind. Some elements of "Water" involve the young girl and the experiences seen through her eyes. It sees poverty and deprivation as a condition of life because for the majority of the Indian majority they live in a life of poverty and people just accept their unfortunate financial position. There is a general feeling that women can be thrown away. The widows in this film are treated as if they have no useful lives apart from their husbands. They are given life sentences. Just because they had the misfortune of having their husband passing away. Without reason these women are sentenced to a life they never wanted for something that wasn't their fault. This shows some of the flaws of Indian culture because they and other cultures do not value women as equal as men. This is an unfair unspoken law because women have to work just as hard as men and then some. I like the movie Water because I think it portrays Indian cultures and very well. It shows the undervalue of men and that even though they were colonized by the British and there is a remarriage law for widows. There have their own unspoken laws because nobody listens to that foreign law. I also like how they show the innocence of Chuyia and it provides a good, new perspective to the movie. 4/5 Stars.

Hauton Tsang Although slow-moving at first, Water eases the viewer into a world of oppression, drugs, and unfairness. Chuyia's naive attitude towards the widow houses highlights the injustices endured by widows in India. In particular, her question about where the men widows are highlight the sexism present in traditional Hindu customs. Only women have to endure the tragic life that is being a widow. The environment of the widows gradually worsens, with the themes of tradition, drugs, and prostitution being highlighted in the movie. This contrasts with the life of luxury that the upper class and Brahmins live. However, despite all that, at the core of the story is a love story between Kalyani and Narayan. Despite the surrounding environment, their love gives them hope and strength. In a stunning plot twist, realization and circumstance crush the hopes of Kalyani and Narayan's love. Their sad tale ends with Kalyani's suicide, and Chuyia taking her place to be ferried across the river as a prostitute. Shakatula, Chuyia's friend, sends her away. She realizes there is no future for Chuyia in the widow house anymore.This movie effectively utilizes a slow pace and build-up of the story so that we as viewers can better relate to the characters in the story. When the horrors of the widow house are slowly revealed, a sense of empathy is felt. When the cause of the horrors are revealed to be the result of systematic corruption of laws and outdated tradition, it brings out a sense of anger. The tragic love story and the ending captions just amplify this sense of injustice, forcing people to realize that these unfair Hindu customs need to be changed.