Film Bites: Water

Deepa Metha's Water, the third part of the acclaimed director's trilogy, is a beautifully filmed, deeply moving tale about the abusive treatment of widows in Colonial India. The subject is sobering; watching the film is anything but. Metha centers her tale around three women: eight-year old Chuyia (Sarala), the extraordinarily beautiful Kalyani (Lisa Ray), and the devout, middle-aged Shakuntala (Seema Biswas).

Widows in 1930's India had three options: throwing themselves on the funeral pyre with their husband, living a life of poverty and chastity, or (if available) marrying the dead husband's brother. In Water, fourteen Hindi widows live in a dilapidated two-story complex with a courtyard. The arrival of the child widow Chuyia disrupts an environment of accepted misery.

The actress Sarala, who is from Sri Lanka and had to learn all of her lines phonetically, gives an amazing performance; she is fierce, childlike, miserable, gleeful, and capable of throwing extremely convincing temper tantrums. It's impossible not to love her and to ache for her stolen life. The same is true for Kaliyana, played by the almost impossibly gorgeous Lisa Ray, who was also widowed during her childhood and was forced into prostitution to support the ashram. These women are not able to accept a life of purgatory; for the audience, it is impossible not to root for their escape. Metha's Water is captivating from the very first frame to the last. Water opens today. [posted by Marcy, 4 out of 5 stars.]

Also opening today: Akeelah and the Bee, The Lost City, Art School Confidential