TV Times

TV Times

'Water':Resurrected in Sri Lankan
By Susitha R. Fernando
Internationally acclaimed director Deepa Mehta's controversial film 'Water', which was filmed entirely in Sri Lankan locations also portrays a leading role played by a Sri Lankan child actres, will be soon released here.

Canada based Indian director who faced severe criticism by Hindu fundamentalists for her subject matter even before the film was shot and eventually set, was burnt forcing the director to complete the film in complete secrecy with a different cast, a different title, different setting and a different country.

The film that has already won international accolades by winning Canada's National Film Awards for Best Actress, (Seema Biswas) and the Best Motion Picture at Bangkok Film Festival 2006 is to be represented at many international festivals.

'Water' the last in Mehta's 'trilogy of element' which handles the theme of child marriages in India subjected to the wrath of fundamentalist Indian just as her two previous films 'Fire' and 'Earth'.

The two films drew hostility from Hindu fundamentalists who objected to her subject matter and had organized attacks on cinemas that screened the films. The resulting tension meant that Mehta struggled for many years to make Water and was eventually forced to film it outside India. Originally intended to direct Water in February, 2000, with a different cast that included Shabana Azmi, Nandita Das and Akshay Kumar.

The day before the filming was due to begin, there were complications over gaining location and the following day over 2,000 protesters stormed the ghats, destroying the main film set, burning and throwing it into the Ganges in protest at the film's criticism of Hindu rituals.

Mehta eventually gave up on making the film in India and shot the film secretly with a different cast in Sri Lanka, under the fictitious title River Moon in 2003. The film was finally completed and debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2005.

'Water' is a landmark for Sri Lankan cinema in addition to it depicting the country. The film brought out an exceptional performance of an eight year old amateur child actress as a child widow living in an ashram.

The performance of the child actress Sarala Kariyawasam a girl from Galle in her debut performance before the camera brought pleasing performance to Deepa as well as the international cast as well.

Set in 1938, it deals with India's road to independence and examines the plight of impovershed widows at a temple in Varanasi, India.When India was still under the colonial rule of the British, and marriages of children to older men was commonplace. When a man died, his widow would be forced to spend the rest of her life in an ashram, an institution for widows to make amends for the sins of her previous life that supposedly caused her husband's death.

Chuyia played by Sarala Kariyawasam is a young girl who has just lost her husband. She is deposited in the house of Hindu widows (an ashram) to spend the rest of her life in renunciation. This is where Chuyia meets three women from different age groups who form an integral part of 'Water' - 20-year- old Kalyani (Lisa Ray), 35-year-old Shakuntala (Seema Biswas) and an 80-year-old woman Madhumati who are counting their last days. The women are sent here to expiate their bad karmas, but more often than not, to relieve their families of financial and emotional burden.

Madhumati is the senior most of all and heads the women in the 'ashram'. She is a character by herself as she loves passing orders all around to the other widows while behind closed doors she loves smoking 'ganja' and passing the time while hearing gossip from her only friend Gulabi, a eunuch and a pimp.

Shakuntala is the mystery woman amongst all the widows as she is quiet and reserved. Kalyani is the most beautiful of all and has a simple outlook towards life. As a bread earner for the ashram she was forced into the world's oldest profession where pimp Gulabi is required to escort her for the services to the rich.

Since Chuyia, a new entrant to this ashram, is an adolescent girl, she can afford to be spirited and full of life. Not one to sit back and take things as they come, her aggressive attitude sets the other women in the 'ashram' also thinking. The biggest difference comes in the life of Kalyani, who inspite of being a widow falls in love with Narayan (John Abraham), who is a young charming upper-class Gandhian idealist.

While remarriage was a taboo in the then society, Kalyani (with support from Narayan) challenges the system and forces other widows to think about right versus wrong, present versus future.
The film has not being screened in India yet and it is to be screened from May 26 at the Majestic Cinema Colombo.

Produced by well-known film producer Chandran Ratnam it is imported by Ceylon Entertainments Limited (CEL) in collaboration with the National film Corporation (NFC).

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