Summary

"Deepa Mehta's WATER is a magnificent film. The ensemble acting of the women in the widows' hostel is . . . intimate, painful, wounded, jaundiced, corrupted, tender, tough. The fluid lyricism of the camera provides an unsettling contrast to the arid difficulties of the characters' lives. The film has serious, challenging things to say about the crushing of women by atrophied religious and social dogmas, but, to its great credit, it tells its story from inside its characters, rounding out the human drama of their lives, and unforgettably touching the heart." -Salman Rushdie From the courageous and provocative filmmaker Deepa Mehta comes WATER, the profoundly moving and compellingly vibrant story of India’s “widow houses,” where women of all ages are taken to live (even today) apart from society following the deaths of their husbands. Sprinkled with humor, rife with universal emotions and alive with visual excitement, the story of WATER follows three widows who dared to stand up for themselves in the liberating time of Mahatma Gandhi. Seven years in the making, WATER was nearly undone by fierce political controversy when the film’s India-based production triggered violent protests by Hindu fundamentalists and was forced to shut down and remount the production -- years later, under a shroud of secrecy in the neighboring country of Sri Lanka. But at the film’s debut, opening the 2005 Toronto Film Festival, Mehta’s unflinching and passionate filmmaking resulted in a rousing standing ovation and critical acclaim. “After making WATER, I feel I could retire. That is how satisfied I am,” Mehta said at the time. The story of WATER begins in 1938 India as an 8 year old girl, who barely even remembers her wedding and has little comprehension of her marriage, has just been widowed. Required by ancient Hindu laws to now leave society, she is brought to a dilapidated widow house or ashram where, according to custom, her hair will be shorn, her clothes exchanged for white robes and the rest of her life, until her death, will be spent in renunciation. But the feisty, precocious, disbelieving Chuyia (SARALA) soon turns the house upside down with her rebellious spark. She begins to have a profound affect on the other women who live there, in particular the devout Shakuntala (SEEMA BISWAS) and the beautiful Kalyani (LISA RAY), who has been forced into prostitution by the domineering head widow, Madhumati (MANORMA). It is Chuyia who leads Kalyani to meet the alluring law student and Gandhi nationalist Narayan (JOHN ABRAHAM), with whom Kalyani falls in love, despite the taboos. What happens next -- an attempt at escape fueled by passion and bravery -- will change Chuyia forever and bring both tragedy and an unexpected ray of hope to the widow house.