Movie: Water

Usually, movie talk would go on the other blog. But this isn't so much about fangirling as it is having seen an incredible and disturbing film.

I caught this one almost by accident. We have Cinemax free for the weekend (they're promoting a new show or something) so I look through the guide and dvr any movies that I want to see. It was while I was doing that that the title 'Water' caught my eye. Somewhere in the past, I'd read about this movie. It's part of a trilogy of sorts - Fire, Earth, and Water. I remember thinking, when I read about those three movies that I'd never get to see them because they're not the kind of thing that would be played on local or cable channels. When I realized what I was seeing, I dvr'd it quickly and looked for the other two. Sadly, they're not being played.

This movie...like I said. It's disturbing, especially when you keep in mind that while this particular story is fictional, it is based on reality.

Without spoiling, the basic premise is this:

The movie is set in 1938 India, when the country was still under British rule. Mahatma Ghandi was just becoming, well, Ghandi. Chuyia is an eight year old girl who has just recently been married to a much older man. Who then proceeds to die, leaving Chuyia an 8 year old widow. She is packed off to an ashram, where she is expected to live out the rest of her life, theoretically in prayer and contemplation, so that she can come back in her next life in a better situation.

The lives of the widows are not pretty. I really don't want to say too much because I think this is a movie that needs to be seen, if at all possible. Chuyia believes and clings to the belief for a very long time that any day her mother will come and take her home. The other women, who are all older than she is of course, indulge her a little. Some of them anyway. Others, most of all the 'head' widow, are cruel. Just because that's the way people are, and these women are in a terrible situation. There's no industry that they work at to provide funds for food or anything else. They *beg* for money for their survival.

Well, beg and the other 'industry'. The head widow pimps out the youngest, prettiest widow (and yes, that bodes about as well for Chuyia as you think it does) to supplement her income. There's tragic love and pain and general crapiness of life, mixed in with hope and yet more suffering. It's a brilliant movie and I could honestly go on abut it forever, but I'm trying not to give away the plot.

If you get the chance, watch this movie. Watch all of them!