I have been quite unfamiliar with the work of Deepa Mehta except for a few scenes of 1947:Earth and Bollywood/Hollywood. Well, before writing anything about the movie, I must say, it takes a hell lot of determination in completing a movie like Water which has been through so many obstacles and had run into so much troubled"water" itself. Splashed across the media for the wrong reasons,Deepa Mehta , after her first two movies in her elements trilogy, was being attacked for her third feature,Water when the shooting began in Banaras. She had to pack up everything and also face the burden of actors backing out. She was forced to return to Canada and well, she made a romantic comedy, Bollywood/Hollywood in between with Lisa Ray and Rahul Khanna in the lead. But Water needed to be made: it was a story needed to be told. Productions began in SriLanka, a compromised setting but nevertheless, Deepa Mehta succeeds in bringing the story to celluloid, or rather celluloid.

As the reels begin to roll, we witness the 8 year old Chuiya (Sarala) who has been widowed and is forcibly sent to the Vidhwa Aashram headed by the fat old Madhoo Didi(Manorama). The charm of young Chuiya and her mother-like relation with Shakuntala( Seema Biswas) and a sister-like relation with Kalyani (Lisa Ray) is what forms the core of the movie. Kalyani falls for Narayan(John Abraham), a tall, handsome, foreign-educated follower of Gandhi. But I think, the film could have done without it. The story of Kalyani remains very blurred in depiction as characters hardly talk and mostly because Lisa Ray's beauty becomes more of an obstruction to me, from sympathising or may be relating with the character( Critics say she is the most gorgeous widow to have graced the Indian celluloid ever). Seema Biswas is a wonderful actor and she brings in the angst,anxiety and desperation to full light and her efforts to rescue Chuiya ,is the only saving grace from the not-so-impressive climax. Rahman's music succeeds in bringing the effect of rain and the feel of drops on your skin with "Aayo re"(my favourite soundtrack in the movie).

You take home lots of questions and also lots of unanswered smiles. Especially, when Buaa keeps asking for Ladoos and Mithaee. Joyous moments when you smile at Kalyani and Chuiya clapping as it rains outdoors and when the entire Ashram gets colored up at Holi with "Shyam Rang " in Richa Sharma's voice plays along.

All in all, a must see for all who have been waiting for so long to lay their eyes on something really meaningful. Cinematically, it can't be called a masterpiece. But this is a movie which transcends all critic rating systems and box office figures. I conclude with something written by famous Movie Critic Roger Ebert(www.rogerebert.com)
"That a film like "Water" still has the power to offend in the year 2006 inspires the question: Who is still offended, and why, and what have they to gain, and what do they fear?"


Next up: 300