Deepa Mehta Water Essay

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In the film produced by Deepa Mehta, Water, mainly focuses on the experiences of Hindu widows in India. I enjoyed the film and in which it was taken in a country whose culture is very foreign to me. The film introduces where a young eight year old girl named Chuyia, becomes a widow after her husband’s death. At such a young age she does not remember her marriage to her husband, assuming it was arranged by her family. After being widowed, she is sent to a widow home in which she has to live there for the rest of her life and in which they are no accepted by society. This place is also called an ashram. Other than all the other widows at the ashram, Chuyia encounters these widows and a man who are basically the main characters: Didi who seems to be the one in control and is mean and bitter; Shankutala, who is sour but protective especially over Chuyia near the end; Kalyani, a warming, beautiful young woman with long hair and lives upstairs; and Narayan, an educated upper class man, follower of Ghandi, who falls in love with Kalyani. Although Chuyia doesn’t fully understand what is going on and wants …show more content…

Another form to earning some money is turning to prostitution. This is where the one beautiful young widow with long hair comes to play. Kalyani was forced into prostitution by the head of the ashram Didi in order to keep the place by ends meet. Didi’s friend Gulabi takes her regularly to the upper class homes where the men pay her for her “duty”. In addition, the ashram is alongside the Ganges River. According to Indian culture, the Ganges River is considered the holy river where people come to clean their bodies and wash their clothes, and wash away their sins. For instance, Kalyani goes to the water to purify herself several times in the movie. I believe she reached her ultimate purification in the end when she drowned herself in order to reach the gods to find

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