Burning in Effigy for Water
As a blatant Indiaphile I am fascinated by all things culturally Indian, from music to food to beauty, and of course, one of my greatest loves: Bollywood. While I'm a big fan of the stereotypically larger-than-life dance numbers, breathtaking beauties, and innumerable costume changes, I'm even happier when a serious Indian film crosses cultural boundaries, like the recent American release Water, by director Deepa Mehta, who splits her time between Canada and India.
Today the New York Times synopsizes the film and speaks with Mehta, who has been burned in effigy for the extremely controversial movie, which tells the story of "Chuyia, an 8-year-old widow in the India of 1938."
She has barely met her husband but is banished by her parents to a decrepit widows' house on the edge of the Ganges. Chuyia is left there sobbing, in one of the most heart-wrenching scenes in the film, but she insists her parents will soon return for her.
Even as it becomes clear that they won't, Chuyia's spirited, rebellious streak shines through, and she begins to change the way the other widows in the house view the world, as the independence movement of Mahatma Gandhi swirls around them. Chuyia has a particularly powerful effect on two people: Shakuntula, who begins to question a Hindu faith that subjects women who have lost husbands to such degrading lives, and Kalyani, a beautiful young widow who has been forced into prostitution by the head of the widow house. As the film unfolds, Kalyani ignores the taboos to fall tragically in love with a handsome young Gandhi nationalist.
The sorrowful film is nonetheless a triumph of conscience over blind faith, and a powerful message about how much, and how little, has changed in India. "I think it's slightly naïve for me to think that films make a difference," Ms. Mehta, the director, said in a telephone interview from Toronto, where she lives half the year, when she is not in New Delhi. "But what it can do is start a dialogue and provoke discussion."
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Cigarette
Cleveland, OH
April 2004
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