2005, Canada/India
Drama, Romance
At seven years old, young Chuyia became a widow. On that day, her life was over as she knew it. Director Deepa Mehta went to great lengths to tell the plight of widowed girls and women in India in the 1930s, on the brink of a new era stubbornly stymied by horrific religious traditions.
This gorgeous but maddening film completes Mehta’s elemental trilogy, following Fire and Earth. Water infuses every moment. Rain washes away emotional burdens, holy water cleanses the physical body of sins and well water cools the temper. There are few moments in which the sky is not opened or the characters are not bathing. These are treasured moments of tranquility in a life heavy with limitations.
Chubby cheeked and big eyed, Chuyia arrives freshly shaven to her new home, an ashram for widows. Her father mournfully drops her off without a word, and she allows herself to live under the illusion that her mother will soon retrieve her. Her new family of lowly caste consist of women at least three times her age, some of whom have been there that long. There are never any references to the husbands who have passed and who are the reason they are there; few remember childhood weddings and some choose to forget everything.
Chuyia soon discovers solace in the motherly Didi and the sweet and stunning Kalyani. The only one to retain her tresses, Kalyani is sequestered to a tower so that she does not contaminate the others with the sins she is forced to commit in order to keep them fed. Slovenly and selfish Madhumati rules the roost with the help of her transvestite eunuch, enforcing ancient conventions that only benefit their greed.
These conventions become the painful turning point of the movie, or at least they should. As future lawyer Narayan falls in love with Kalyani, he is also learning the teachings of Ghandi and his belief in equality amongst the caste system. The land is so intensely divided that some would rather continue harmful traditions out of habit and when it suits them. In a shocking moment, Didi learns that laws have been passed to help widows, but as they benefited no one else, the women were not informed.
Cinematographer Giles Nuttgens (Bee Season, Young Adam) has created beauty in a world of harsh realities. In breaths between the drama, wide lakes full of lotus and giant trees with outstretched limbs provide a sense of peace in a country under turmoil. These are moments for the adult women who have long suffered, as Chuyia has yet to realize her reality.
Chuyia is still a child who questions, while the women have submitted to their fates. Though initially light and hopeful, Mehta does not shield the truth with romantic illusions. Life at the bottom of the caste system is desperate, and the sins of these women lay only in that they were forced to marry.