Friday August 11th, 2006
5pm and 8pm
The Tower Theatre
815 E. Olive Avenue, Fresno
$10.00 general admission
$8.00 for Students and Seniors
“Deftly balancing epic sociopolitical scope with intimate human emotions, all polished to a high technical gloss, Deepa Mehta’s Water is a profoundly moving drama.”
- Eddie Cockrell, Variety
“Like India’s greatest filmmaker, Satyajit Ray, Mehta is a great pure-hearted storyteller and a maker of shining naturalistic images.”
- Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
“Reminds us that Mehta is a filmmaker of courage�–she refused to abandon this film even after fundamentalist protestors shut down the production in India–and singular style, telling stories that have never been told on screen.”
- Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press
Synopsis
The making of Deepa Mehta’s award winning Water was dogged for years, by censorship and the physical destruction of the set by frenzied mobs of orthodox Hindus. It is 1938, and Gandhi has arrived in British-controlled India. A vivacious seven year old girl, Chuyia, is the still-virgin wife of her elderly husband who dies before their marriage is consummated. Indeed she has no memory of being married. Without explanation her parents whisk the independent Chuyia to an ashram for widows who according to religious doctrine must make amends for the sins of a previous life that supposedly caused the husband’s death. The impoverished widow has the choice of being burned with her husband, marrying their deceased husband’s brother, or serving literally a life sentence without parole in the widow’s ashram. This unique women’s community survives by begging, while the younger, attractive ones like the beautiful Kalyani are hired-out as prostitutes, often with upper class wealthy Brahmins whose wives must look the other way. A warm and tender friendship quickly develops between the twentyish Kalyani and the rebellious Chuyia. Their fate as Indian women seems sealed and reflects, on the one hand the still existent harsh extremist religious orthodoxy, and on the other, the hope for a brighter future led by the spirit and teachings of Gandhi’s very short-lived influence.
Directed by Deepa Mehta
Canada/India, 2005
114 min., rated PG-13
In Hindi, with English subtitles