Deepa Mehta, Water

The second film in Mehta's trilogy, Earth (1998), is about the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan as seen through the eyes of a young girl. Earth, described as an intimate epic, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 1998. Earth was India's entry for the 1999 Academy Awards and has won numerous awards.


In speaking about Earth Mehta commented:
"Film is a powerful medium and my hope is that Earth will produce a dialogue and force people to think more deeply about the cost of such divisions… I wanted to tell this really large story from the standpoint of an intimate group of friends from different ethnic groups and trace out the process of partition through them." (Phillips)

The filming of Water, the third film of Mehta's Indian trilogy, began in 2000. However, Mehta was forced to abandon shooting when violent controversy erupted, instigated by Hindu fundamentalists. Speaking about returning to Toronto after the Water experience in India, Mehta said, "It took me about 3 months to decide what I wanted to do next, and sitting at my kitchen table I said really what I wanted to do was something that was life-affirming, that was fun, that was foot-tapping, that made me feel glad to be alive, and I wrote Bollywood/Hollywood (Talk Cinema).



In Bollywood/Hollywood (2002) Mehta uses both genres as backdrop to a movie about the lives of Indian families in Toronto. In speaking about this well-received film Mehta said:
"When I was introducing the film at the Toronto Film Festival last year, I said to them, it would really help if you'd put on your dancing shoes and park your grey cells in the basement. Because it's not an intellectual, logical film. It's a film about the spirit of feeling good, and singing and dancing. And if you're open to it, a window into another culture. To see how more than 1 billion people live and survive in the world." (Talk Cinema)