herez more info abt the movie
Water'' a reality and not myth: Mehta
Thiruvananthapuram | December 11, 2005 3:35:52 AM IST
This is a reality and not a myth. ''Water'' is not aimed at tarnishing India's image outside the country but to portray reality, Deepa Mehta, noted filmmaker said here today after her controversial film was premiered in the country. ''The film is not a myth but reality. Though the film is set against the social milieu of 1938, the theme is relevant even today.
What is happening to the aborigines in Latin America and the plight of the blacks when hurricane Katrina lashed Louisiana. These only show deviations in society,'' she said at the first Open Forum at the tenth International film festival of Kerala.
Ms Mehta said one should search one's backyard to know the reality in which we are living. ''The plight of woman all over the world are the same, be it in India or other countries. There is still marginalisation of widows in society in one way or the other.
The only thing is that it differs from region to region.'' ''Water'' was shown as the inaugural film at the IIFFK 2005, which began here yesterday.
On getting to the theme of the plight of widows in India, she traced it to long years of watching and mingling with them.
''I have seen widows all my life. My own grandmother was a widow.
Only when I went to Varanasi did I get along with some widows and widow ashrams and houses. ''There was a curiosity but the book 'Perpetual Mourning' about the history of widows and widows in contemporary India, became a sort of my Bible. It was a great inspiration for the filming of Water,'' she said.
Ms Mehta began production of Water in 2000 at Varanasi but had to abandon it after some ''fascist groups'' stormed the sets and destroyed them. Five years later, she shot the film in Sri Lanka.
Noting that the shooting in that country was an ''incredible experience'', she said ''in Lanka I got recognition as a director and had full freedom.'' On portraying Gandhiji in the film, Ms Mehta said Gandhiji was the subtext hero in ''Water''. ''It is to show that the social fabric at that time in India was changing.'' Sharing her experiences in the production, the filmmaker said ''it was really a great moment for me. After five years the film was becoming a reality. All the team worked together as a family to realise the dream''.
Ms Mehta had always used the innocent eye of a child protagonist to explore the theme that dominated her work and in ''Water'' it is the seven year old Chuyia. On the little girl Sarala (who plays Chuyia), who hails from Sri Lanka, Ms Mehta said ''it was great directing her. The fact that she did not know Hindi or English was a bit of a challenge. But Sarala is a very bright and extremely intelligent girl. We worked through an interpreter and the thing with kids is that they really have to want to do it''.
''Water'', the final instalment of the Elements trilogy that began with Earth and Fire, tells the story of an eight-year-old child bride sent to live in a widow's colony after her husband's death.
Her 1996 film ''Fire'' about lesbians, was pulled from Indian theatres following violent protests and the next year, ''Earth'', about the 1947 Partition of the subcontinent, was banned in Pakistan.
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