Deepa Mehta, Water

After Choker Bali, I remembered about another movie which is also about widows' life in India but more serious and mature, - Water.

"The film has a great deal to say about the plight of socio-economically challenged women, specifically the widows of Varanasi in the 1930s."

"Water captures the essence of life from a widow’s perspective. The film, set on the banks of the Ganges in Varanasi portrays the stringent atmosphere prevailing in what could be hailed as the most conservative and orthodox period in Indian history. Talking about the old customs, the legacy carried on from the old generations stifled the masses into obscurity."

John Abraham looks really cool

Five years ago, Deepa Mehta went to Benares to film the third work in her acclaimed trilogy (including Earth and Fire). She wanted to reveal the fate of widows in colonial India; forced to either burn on their husbands’ funeral pyre, marry their brothers-in-law, or join isolated ashrams. But fundamentalist Hindus torched the set and sent death threats to Mehta, who had to start over in Sri Lanka. Amazingly, her film is still a hopeful and tender tribute to women shunned by society, who come to question the tradition that sends an 8-year-old-girl to the ashram after the death of her arranged bridegroom. “By turns amusing and tragic, touching and romantic, Water ebbs and flows with devastating truths into the hypocrisy of extremism in any religion.”

I've heard about this movie and have seen parts of it on TV...wanted to watch it...it was shown on some Indian festival here...but tickets were somewhat $100... So waiting for it to come out on DVD...
What about you Mag? Have u seen it???
Loved EARTH though...this is the only one I've seen so far...

I also heard about Water and even saw the trailer i think about half a year ago...i liked the music...but as for Earth i hear for the first time about this movie, Owlet, what's it about? and who starring?

Owlet wrote:

What about you Mag? Have u seen it???

Oh yes I have! From the same source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww5wX5ED8NU&feature=PlayList&p=72C0EEBCC486CF61&index=0
Part 1 seems missing though.
Me either don't know anything about Earth, except it was mentioned in Water reviews.

"Water is a Canadian 2005 film directed and written by Deepa Mehta. The film is also the third part of a linked trilogy by Mehta, preceded by Fire (1996) and Earth (1998)."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_%282005_film%29

Owlet yeah so can you tell us a little about Earth?

smetanka wrote:

Owlet, what's it about? and who starring?

Smetanka, it's a deeply moving personal account on a very painful subject of the partition of India.
In August 1947 the departing British colonial rulers announced the division of the subcontinent into a Muslim-controlled Pakistan and a Hindu-Sikh dominated India. The partition was organised by the British Labour government with the support and collaboration of the Muslim League and the Indian Congress Party.

At least 11 million people—Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and others—caught on the wrong side of the dividing lines were driven out of their homes. Some reports put the death toll from communalist pogroms and rioting at one million. The greatest numbers were killed in Punjab, which was split in two. Tens of thousands died in weeks of carnage.

Many commentators have described this event as one of the worst man-made tragedies of the last half-century. It was a political catastrophe whose reverberations are still being felt, and one that has plunged the sub-continent into three wars and brought India and Pakistan to the brink of nuclear war.

Deepa Mehta's film, which bases itself on Bapsi Sidhwa's novel Cracking India, portrays this disaster through the eyes of a child—Lenny, an 8-year-old crippled girl—from Lahore, the Punjabi city that saw some of the bloodiest pogroms. The experiences, hopes and fears of this young girl provide an intense portrait of the period.

The story is set in Lahore in the time period directly before and during the partition of India in 1947.

A young girl with polio, Lenny (Maia Sethna), narrates the story through the voice of her adult self (Shabana Azmi). She is from a wealthy Parsi family who hopes to remain neutral to the rising tensions between Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims in the area. She is cared for by her Ayah, the beautiful Hindu woman, Shanta (Nandita Das). Both Dil, the Ice-Candy Man (Aamir Khan) and Hassan, the Masseur (Rahul Khanna) are Muslim and in love with Shanta. Shanta, Dil, and Hassan are part of a larger multi-ethnic group of Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh friends (some of whom work for Lenny's family) who spend their days together in the park. With partition, however, this once unified group of friends becomes divided and tragedy ensues.

Young Lenny belongs to the Parsee minority, a religious sect that immigrated to India from Persia during the 9th century in order to escape religious persecution following the rise of Islam. The Parsees, because of their willingness to cooperate with the British colonial rulers, carved out a comfortable existence as merchants and industrialists.
Lenny's family is well off and maintains friendly relations with the British authorities and the various religious groupings. The family household has six servants drawn from a number of different religious backgrounds. Lenny has a warm and loving family and a life free of care. Her nanny, Ayah Shanta (Nandita Das), a beautiful young Hindu woman has several young men—Sikh, Hindu and Muslim—wooing her and who also treat Lenny with equal affection. The harmony in Lenny's life, however, begins to break up as the date approaches for the British to quit India and they prepare to divide the sub-continent.

Relations between Lenny's parents and various business associates start to turn sour. Everyday jokes and innocent games between friends of different religious backgrounds are replaced by bickering and harsh remarks over religion and family bloodlines. Leaders of the religious and ethnic groupings begin jockeying for positions within the new order being established by the departing British authorities.

Even as the mood becomes charged with rumours and dangerous tensions, Ayah's love-life blossoms and her affections turn towards Hasan (Rahul Khanna), a Muslim. Hasan urges Ayah's friends to stand by each other and resist the increasing fanaticism.

But rising tensions are inflamed with reports of murder, rape, and rioting mobs wrecking homes, shops and temples and mosques. Ice Candy Man (Aamir Khan), another young man vying for Ayah's affection, is inexorably drawn in by communalist rhetoric; each rumour and massacre report unhinging the previously stable and affable young man.

In opposition to the climate of cynicism and callous indifference to the fate of ordinary people, Earth is a courageous and humane film. Mehta is clearly animated by a determination to end the long silence by western filmmakers and artists about this terrible chapter in the 20th century.
Excellent performances by its cast, in particular Maia Sethna as Lenny and the alluring Nandita Das as Ayah; and an hypnotic musical score by A. R. Rahman, with lyrics by Javed Akhtar, one of India's leading poets, combine to make Earth a powerful work.

How did u like Water Mag???
Who is John Abraham there???

Mag wrote:

"Water...portrays the stringent atmosphere prevailing in what could be hailed as the most conservative and orthodox period in Indian history..."

When is that????

Owlet wrote:

How did u like Water Mag???
Who is John Abraham there???

Mag wrote:

"Water...portrays the stringent atmosphere prevailing in what could be hailed as the most conservative and orthodox period in Indian history..."

When is that????

It's an ok movie. I can't say anything about historical stuff cause I don't know, but just watching it was not a bad experience. In the movie it was shown that it was the time when old ideas and way of life were facing changes as Gandhi appeared and got many followers. One of them was John's character who was a modern-minded guy who's fallen in love with one of the widows and wanted to marry her. The girl was played by Lisa Ray, I never heard about this actress before and she's quite fine.

Mag wrote:

The girl was played by Lisa Ray, I never heard about this actress before and she's quite fine.

Ohhh, u didn't know about her...Canadian Indian...
I liked her sexy pictures , have never seen her in movies...

Canada has set a record for foreign Oscar submissions by nominating a Hindi-language film, the Deepa Mehta-directed Water.

It could do so only because, three months ago, Oscar rules were changed to allow a country to nominate a film that isn't in its indigenous language as long as English is not the dominant language in the film.

Mag, did u like Lisa Ray in the movie???

Nice sexy pictures of Lisa Ray.. and John

So did Water actually get any Oscar or just was nominated?

Quote :

Mag, did u like Lisa Ray in the movie???

Well I liked her, I think she's right for that role and she's a good actress.

Mag wrote:

So did Water actually get any Oscar or just was nominated?

We'll see what happens...
It was JUST submitted for nominating......was not nominated even yet I think...they are gonna be doing nominations pretty soon I guess...by the end of the year or in the begining of the next one...

Was John in love with Lisa in the movie???

Owlet wrote:

We'll see what happens...
It was JUST submitted for nominating...

Oh really! Let's see then...

Quote :

Was John in love with Lisa in the movie???

Yup, I said he was! But because the part 1 of the movie is missing on youtube I don't know how did John first appear in the movie, it seemed that he met with Lisa accidentally and it was love at first sight.... but then how so suddenly he became serious with his intentions to marry her.. well anyway probably he was a decent man...

Deepa Mehta-directedjust has been nominated for Oscar!

I've finally seen Water...WOW!!!...what a movie!!!

Want to tell about Deepa Mehta. I'm very impressed by her.



Deepa Mehta, who has been described as "Canada's most internationally renowned woman film-maker" (Levitin, An Introduction), was born in 1950 in Amritsar, a city on India's border with Pakistan. Like many other Hindu families, Mehta's parents had fled the newly created Pakistan at the time of Partition in 1947. Mehta's father was a film distributor and owned a number of movie theatres. As a child, Mehta watched hundreds of movies in her father's theatres but did not have an early interest in becoming a filmmaker. She attended Welham Girls High School and graduated from the University of Delhi with a degree in philosophy before immigrating to Canada in 1973.

After graduating from university, Mehta had her first experience in the film industry when she went to work for a company that made educational and documentary films for the Indian government. Mehta had the opportunity to direct her first film, a documentary about a child bride based on the experience of a fifteen year-old girl who had worked in Mehta's family home. It was at this time that Mehta met Paul Saltzman, a young Canadian filmmaker who was doing research in New Delhi.
They married, moved to Toronto in 1973, and with Mehta's brother Dilip, started Sunrise Films. Sunrise Films began by producing documentary films and then branched out into television work.

In 1974 Mehta made her Canadian directorial debut with an acclaimed documentary, At 99: A Portrait of Louise Tandy. Together Saltzman and Mehta undertook a documentary film series, Spread Your Wings, about the inventiveness and dedication to crafts of young people around the world. In 1985, Deepa Mehta directed Travelling Light, a television documentary about her brother Dilip, a renowned photojournalist. This film was nominated for three Gemini awards and was a finalist award at the 1987 New York International Film and Television Festival.

In 1987, Mehta produced and co-directed Martha, Ruth and Edie, a film based on works by Alice Munro, Cynthia Flood and Betty Lambert. It was screened at the Cannes International Film Festival and won the Best Feature Film Award at the 11th International Film Festival in Florence in 1988.
Mehta's debut feature film Sam and Me, (starring Om Puri), a story of the relationship between a young Indian boy and an elderly Jewish gentleman in the Toronto neighbourhood of Parkdale, was released in 1991 and won an honourable mention in the Caméra d'or category at the Cannes International Film Festival. This film, like many of her later films, is both a deeply personal film and a film that has universal emotional content. With the success of Sam and Me, Mehta received offers to direct two episodes of George Lucas' television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and the big budget feature Camilla, starring Bridget Fonda and Jessica Tandy in 1994.

In 1995, Mehta, now divorced, began work on Fire, the first of a powerful and controversial planned trilogy of films set in India. With Fire, Mehta, determined to maintain artistic control of her films, began her practice of taking on the dual role of writer and director. Fire (1996), a film that tells the story of two middle-class Indian women trapped in arranged marriages, earned Mehta critical acclaim and awards including the International Jury Prize for the Best Film at the Verona International Film Festival in 1997. Critics attributed Fire's widespread success, in part, to Mehta's ability to build empathy across cultural borders.


Mehta herself commented:
"Even though FIRE is very particular in its time and space and setting, I wanted its emotional content to be universal. The struggle between tradition and individual expression is one that takes place in every culture. FIRE deals with this specifically in the context of Indian society. What appealed to me was that the story had a resonance that transcended geographic and cultural boundaries." (Fire Zeitgeist Films)