Water – Promo Watch 
By Joginder Tuteja, November 11, 2005 - 02:07 IST
Deepa Mehta's 'Water' finally sees the light of the day. As an opening film of the 30th annual Toronto International Film, it is back in news after it was stopped from being shot in India years back. Third in the trilogy after 'Fire' and 'Earth', 'Water' is director Deepa Mehta's long cherished dream that she has finally realized after a wait for number of years. Produced by David Hamilton, 'Water' was secretly shot in Sri Lanka under the fake title of 'Full Moon' to avoid any further controversy that could have hampered the completion of the movie.
Water is set in the year 1938 when India was still under the colonial rule of British. This was the time when child marriage in certain sections of society was a bitter reality. The promo begins with a shot of a young village girl Chuyia [Sarala] dressed in a saree and eating a sugarcane while riding on the backside of a bullock cart. The very next shot explains a cruel blow that is about to be bestowed on Chuyia. This is where her father wakes her up to break the news that would change her life forever.
He tells her sympathetically that the man whom she had married was dead and from now she is a widow. The girl simply looks at him straight in the eyes with an expressionless face while not being aware about how to react. She stares at him without understanding the implications of his statement. Truly a poignant moment!
With the beginning of the sad song 'Piya Ho' in the background, the character of Kalyani [Lisa Ray] is introduced who is an inmate of the widow 'ashram' where Chuyia has been brought in. With near to nil makeup and a short haircut, she is shown wrapped in a white saree while rubbing the floors with her hands. Comments that follow on the screen could shake the strongest hearted person as they go like:
"The scriptures say that widows have three options: Marry your husband's younger brother, burn with your dead husband or lead a life of self denial!!"
Till now the happenings on the screen demonstrate the sad life of the widows with most of the frames being dark and gloomy.
Hope arrives with the introduction of Narayan [John Abraham], a Gandhi follower who brings with him new age ideas and aims at being a part of modern day social revolution. This is quite apparent when he and Kalyani have a discussion around the good and bad traditions from the past. There are hints about the two falling in love with each other by showing some little moments they share with each other. This is where another comments flashes on screen -
"Honor, obey but never becomes a stranger to love!"
Deepa Mehta's favorite Kulbhushan Kharbanda appears for a brief where he advises Kalyani to never loose her faith, after which follows a song of celebration 'Chal sanan sanan'. Along with it come bright frames that change the mood of the proceedings from dark and gloomy to joy and hope with rain all around. In the shots that follow, there is also a blink-and-you-may-miss shot of Gandhiji boarding a train while his followers see him off in full force.
A touching promo of around two minutes duration, it gives a good enough idea about the feel and the mood of the movie that aims at conveying a strong social message. Written and directed by Deepa Mehta, Water has Giles Nuttgens as the cinematographer of the movie [who also shot Fire and Earth] and Colin Monie as the movie's editor. Background score for the film is done by Mychael Danna while songs are composed by A.R.Rehman with lyrics by Sukhwinder Singh. Others in the starcast include Waheeda Rehman, Seema Biswas, Raghuvir Yadav, Vinay Pathak and Rishma Malik.
'Water' will have its international release in countries across globe this November.
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