Review on Water

In my opinion, I would not want to watch this film again. Even though the film was very good and extremely powerful, I found it good enough to watch only once. The storyline of movie and the category of which it falls into are factors that determine whether you want to watch the film more than once. For example, if someone is interested in the philosophical or religious category of films, than they would watch that same movie more then once, yet if a person is interested in action films, then they will most likely only watch it once. The storyline of this film is based on the culture and the way of living in the olden times of India, therefore people interested in history, will definitely watch this movie more than once, however, it also depends on whether the film is good or not, depending on its plot, its characters, its scenery, etc.

I think that this film can stand the test of time because it compares the old generation with the new, and it shows how people many years ago used to live, and what the culture was like. The film paints a picture of religious fundamentalism that remains unchanged despite materialistic social advances that have occurred during the decades.

I'm Hindu, and very religious, yet I don't completely know the history of India, and how the culture used to be. I did know, however, that girls would get married at a young age, and if their husband died, she would burn her body along with her husband's on his funeral pyre. But I didn't know they had a choice between this, or moving into a ashram for widows. This film taught us about women in traditional Hindu society.

One of the very first images we see is of a lotus surrounded by water, which taps into a common Hindu motif regarding the potential for purity and beauty despite an impure environment. This theme is spelled out later, when Kalyani says she puts up with her low station in life because, according to the Lord Krishna, a person must "learn to live like a lotus, untouched by the filthy water it is in." In addition, the Ganges, though a sacred river to Hindus, symbolizes in this film the division between the castes, as well as the exploitation of one group by another; and, ultimately, it is linked with despair and death.

The directors captured the area's rich interplay of light and color, land and water, riches and poverty. Fortunately, writer-director Deepa Mehta keeps us