Winter 2019: Critical Film Essay on Deepa Mehta's Water, MEDA12921GD

This critical film essay analyzes Deepa Mehta's 'Water,' examining its social, cultural, and political contexts within the framework of the Elements Trilogy. The essay delves into the film's depiction of ostracism, misogyny, and the plight of Indian widows in 1940, exploring themes of child marriage, feminism, and religious oppression. The analysis highlights the film's portrayal of powerlessness, violence, and the impact of caste systems on women's lives. It discusses the characters, such as Chuyia and Kalyani, and their experiences within a patriarchal society, emphasizing the film's significance in portraying the hardships faced by women during British rule. The essay concludes by emphasizing the film's importance and its accurate portrayal of the challenges faced by women during that era. The essay also provides references to scholarly articles and publications that support the analysis of the film.

Running head: CRITICAL FILM ESSAY ON DEEPA MEHTA’S WATER
Critical Film Essay on Deepa Mehta’s Water
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CRITICAL ESSAY ON DEEPA MEHTA’S THE WATER
Water is an Indo-Canadian film released in the year 2005 and was directed by
acclaimed filmmaker Deepa Mehta. The film forms the third and the final entry in filmmaker
Deepa Mehta’s acclaimed Elements Trilogy films, having succeeded films like Fire (1996)
and Earth (1998). The film had the honour of being shown to the audiences on the opening
day of the Film Festival and had received many accolades from critics all over the world. The
film is well known for dealing with the concepts such as ostracism as well as the concepts of
misogyny. This is considered to be one of the best films in the trilogy to be made by the
filmmaker herself.
The purpose of this essay is to explore the social, cultural, political contexts used
in the production of the film Walter.
Before starting to critically analyse the given film on the given contexts, it is
important to know about the film and what the story of the film is about. The film, Water
deals with the concepts of ostracism and misogyny and how it affected the lives of the rural
Indian widows of 1940 in India. The film was set in a time when the concept of child
marriage was still legal in India in the year 1940. The film deals with various social, political
as well as cultural issues that were prevalent in the society during the 1940’s the time period
that the movie was set in. The movie itself is influenced by the social issues which was
prevalent during that time period in the country of India (Feng, 2016). The movie mainly
deals with various kinds of social issues that affected the widows in India during the British
rule in the year 1940. From the movie itself, the audience get the idea that the child marriage
was still prevalent in the Indian society during the time in which the movie was set in.
Women in India also faced various problems like being forced into prostitution, misogyny as
well as ostracism in the country. That is what the story of the film is about where the
audience finds that the protagonist of the film, Chuyia, who was a widow was sent to an

2CRITICAL ESSAY ON DEEPA MEHTA’S THE WATER
ashram along with fourteen other women, all of whom were being used in prostitution by the
owner of the ashram and her pimp friend.
From this example from the film, it is clear that the women, especially widows faced
severe problems from the male members of the society during that time. Not only were the
children forced to marry, bit once their husband died, they were exploited to perform
activities that were against their wishes. The film strongly deals with the theme of feminism
which is being presented in various ways to the audiences in the movie itself. The film
accurately managers to portray the oppression that the women suffered during that time in
which the movie is set. This is revealed to the audiences at the beginning of the film when
Chuyia’s father asks her whether she remembered getting married and having a husband,
because she is a widow as her husband was dead. As stated by Harrison (2017), this opening
statement from her father shapes the misery that was to befall eight-year-old Chuyia, as she
arrived at the ashram where her head was shaved. The way she ran away from the ashram
wanting to escape to her family tells the audiences about the tragic situations that women had
to face in those days as Chuyia gradually begins to understand her situation but is helpless
against it. The film also talks about the relationship that starts between Chuyia and Kalyani
who falls in love with Narayan, a Gandhian. All of these oppressions on her does induce a
sense of pity on the audience as they resonate with the sufferings of Chuyia and the tragedy
that befalls her.
As stated by Harrison (2017), the film also tackles the subjects of patriarchy as well as
oppression in the name if religion by the male members of the society during that time. The
best examples of these themes can be seen in the way in which women were exploited by the
male members of the society. This is shown with the situations faced by Kalyani as she was
being sent for prostituting at an upper-class family against her wishes. The audiences are
exposed to the irony that she fell in love wit a person whose father was one of the men who

3CRITICAL ESSAY ON DEEPA MEHTA’S THE WATER
had exploited her. Religion also plays an important role in the movie as it is also one of the
tools used by the male members for oppressing the female. The Hindu widows were forcedly
sent to an ashram after their husbands died so that they could be exploited by sending them
into prostitution and other activities.
Apart from the themes of feminism, and oppression by religion, castes also play an
important theme that has been explored in the movie Water, directed by Deepa Mehta. This is
portrayed by the fact that the Brahmin women of the society were respected even if they were
widows. As stated by Corrigan (2014), while women who belonged to the lower castes were
mistreated by the society itself. It also urges the audiences to think about the lives and the
condition of transgender men and women as is seen in the character of Gulaabi, an eunuch
who works as a pimp for the owner of the ashram.
Other social factors that are important as the themes of the movie Water directed by
Deepa Mehta are the themes of powerlessness as well as the violence which are being
inflicted on the widows in the movie. The filmmaker has accurately portrayed the themes of
powerlessness and the violence faced not only by Chuyia but also by the other women in their
movie itself. Powerlessness is what made the widows unable to think for themselves and
abide by the rules and regulations imposed on them by the society as well as the elders of the
society. This is revealed to the audiences in the scene of the movie when Kalyani was chasing
Chuyia and her puppy Kaalu but accidentally bumps into a woman who scolds her saying that
she had polluted her and hence that woman had to bathe again (Feng, 2016). These instances
from the film points out the fact that the people in the town did not have any kind of respect
towards the widows. They viewed the widows as impure and liked to exploit them which
really raised concerns among the audiences about the social conditions of the society during
that time.

4CRITICAL ESSAY ON DEEPA MEHTA’S THE WATER
The other theme which is also highlighted in the movie itself is the theme of violence
that is portrayed in various ways in the movie itself. This theme of violence is reflected in the
ways in which the widows used to be punished in the movie if they did not do as they were
being told in the movie itself. However, the main threat that is being highlighted in the movie
itself is God’s anger which was being used to exploit the women into doing their task for
themselves. As stated by Radia (2016), the women were exploited in the manner that if they
would not do ads they were told to do by the society itself, then God would be angry on them
for not listening to the orders and hence that would not be good for them. Thus, the
prominent members of the society as well as the owner of the ashram. Thus, all these factors
explained above proves the point that that the condition of women was indeed very pathetic
during the time of the British rule in India.
The movie Water, indeed points to the harassment faced by the women in the society.
It portrays the sexism and the racism which was rampant in the society during that time. The
author has successfully managed to make a movie where she accurately portrays the suffering
that was faced by the women during the1940’s. Throughout the movie itself, the filmmaker
has included instances to show the various ways in which the women were oppressed by the
male and other members of the society in India. The filmmaker has beautifully managed to
portray the character of Chuyia and the troubles that she faces in her life as well as her
friendship with Kalyani and her own problems as well. The other important thing about the
movie is the relationship that the character of Kalyani shares with that of Narayan who was a
foreign educated lawyer and a follower of Gandhian principles. Although the filmmaker
shows the relationship between them, she does not let it be a happy ending which kind of
serves as the right ending to the film (Van Raalte, 2014). This is because the film
concentrates more on the themes of the oppression faced by the women in the society than the
relationships faced between them.

5CRITICAL ESSAY ON DEEPA MEHTA’S THE WATER
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that Water directed by Deepa Mehta
is indeed one of the most important movies to be ever made, even considered to be the most
important of the elements trilogy of the films made by the filmmaker. The movie accurately
portrays the conditions faced by the Indian widows during the 1940’s British rule in India.
There lies the significance of the film as one of the most important of the elements trilogy.

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Reference List
Corrigan, T., & Corrigan, G. (2014). A short guide to writing about film (Vol. 7). Pearson
Education.
Feng, P. C. (2016). Diasporic Bollywood: Fusionist Practices and Gender Performativity in
Deepa Mehta’s Bollywood/Hollywood. In Performing Ethnicity, Performing Gender
(pp. 114-125). Routledge.
Harrison, K. (2017). Romeo and Juliet, Polyglossia, and the Romantic Politics of Deepa
Mehta’s Water. In Shakespeare, Bakhtin, and Film (pp. 209-226). Palgrave
Macmillan, Cham.
KPS, S. (2018). Visual Culture and The Subject Formation in Deepa Mehta’s Water. IJELLH
(International Journal of English Language, Literature in Humanities), 6(12), 10-10.
Lehmann, C. (2016). " An élan of the soul"?: Counter-cinema and Deepa Mehta's Water.
Shakespeare Bulletin, 34(3), 433-450.
Radia, P. (2016). Co-Opted Cinderellas and the Transnational Fairy Tales of Globalization:
Politicizing the Traffic in Bodily Harm in Deepa Mehta’s Heaven on Earth. Women's
Studies, 45(8), 758-774.

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Van Raalte, C. (2014). What If I Had Been The Hero? Investigating Women's Cinema.
Vyas, M. Socio-Ethical Polemics in Water.