Deepa Mehta (center) with John Abraham on her extreme right, Seema Biswas on her right, and Lisa Ray on her extreme left. Sri Lankan child actor Sarala is on her left.

Water is a breathtaking work of cinematographic art, starring John Abraham and Lisa Ray. It is about the ill treatment of widows in India in the 1930s. It was initially supposed to star Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das, but the shooting in the temple town of Varanasi was abandoned five years ago following agitations by conservatives like BJP and the Shiv Sena who called the film anti-Hindu and did not want it to be shot there.

On the first day of shooting, hooligans destroyed her set. While Mehta is no stranger to strong reactions to her work - Indian billboards advertising her homosexuality-themed film Fire were set alight in 1998 - it took her two years to get over the anger and relocate Water to Sri Lanka despite offers from other Indian provinces.

Water received validation from Canada when it opened at the Toronto film festival this year much to the delight of its maker. And while the KaraFilm Society wanted Mehta to bring it to the festival this year, she and her team decided that as the project went through such trials in India, it was important to screen it at the Kerala film festival first.

As Water has yet to be released in Pakistan, the Canadian High Commission (CHC) in Islamabad helped arrange for the private screening. For fear of piracy, the film was flown in with diplomatic courier from New Delhi to Islamabad from where a CHC media officer brought it personally over to Karachi.

Mehta, resplendent in a black sari with her long hair left dramatically loose, attended the screening and answered a barrage of questions afterwards. When asked why she hadn’t focused on other minorities, she replied that it depended on the story. She also explained that she picked Lisa Ray to play Kalyani instead of Nandita Das as the expectations of the character had changed by the time she started relocating. I wanted someone with a sense of naiveté and vulnerability, Mehta said, adding that Ray fitted this description to perfection. She also explained that she chose to set the film in 1938 and not in present-day India as child marriages are rare now.

A member of the audience asked Mehta why she brought Gandhi in towards the end of the film, to which she replied that the leader was used as a symbol of impending social change, which was significant as at that time a law allowing the remarriage of widows was passed.

The burning question on everyone’s lips was perhaps which of the three films did she love the most, to which Mehta replied Water.

And when KaraFilm Society’s Hasan Zaidi asked what her next project was, Mehta wryly replied: “I refuse to do a film about Air”.


Water's Storyline:

Seema Biswas plays a much-hated matron of a widows' home, Yadav an eunuch who procures women for local rich, Kharbanda, a Brahmin wracked by doubts about the scriptures he teaches to widows and John Abraham, an idealist who falls in love with a widow played by Lisa Ray. However later, Ray comes to know that John is son of the rich man whom she serves every night at the instance of her matron and eunuch. Consequently, Ray commits suicide by drowning herself in the river. The matron then turns to a nine-year-old widow named Chuyia played by Sarala (a Sri Lankan) to replace Ray.

The story centers around Chuyia who has just lost her husband. She is placed in an ashram along with 13 others to spend the rest of her life in renunciation. Chuyia is convinced that her mother will come to take her away. So, she adapts to her new life. Madhumati initiates her into widowhood. The ashram women are to expiate bad karma; though mostly to relieve their families of financial and emotional burden.

A pompous woman in her 70s runs the ashram with pimp Gulabi (Raghuvir Yadav), and eunuch and also a hermaphrodite, who not only keeps Madhumati supplied with ganja, but helps Madhumati to prostitute Kalyani (Lisa Ray). Kalyani is the only widow whose hair is not shorn. Shakuntala (Seema Biswas) is the most enigmatic, and good-looking besides being a devout Hindu who seeks the counsel of Sadananda (Kulbushan Kharbanda), a priest in his late forties who recites the scriptures to the pilgrims who throng the ghats of the holy city. One day, Kalyani meets a young law graduate, Narayan (John Abraham) and is attracted to him, and cannot get the him out of her mind. She refuses to oblige Madhumati and her clients.

Meanwhile Narayan meets with Kalyani and takes her away to Calcutta. Kalyani returns to the ashram and whispers the secret of her wedding plans to Chuhiya, who is thrilled at the prospect of a wedding feast. She speaks out the couple's secret to Madhumati, and all hell breaks loose. She enters Kalyani's isolated hovel, and clips her long black hair and locks her up. Shakuntala unlocks the door to Kalyani's room. Kalyani bathes to wash way the cruel face of her tormentor, and goes to Narayan who asks her once again if she will marry him. Narayan takes Kalyani to his parents' house. Alas, Kalyani recognizes the house and asks Narayan to turn the boat around. Then everything changes, including the life of little Chuyia. Thus, John turns a Gandhian. Seema too revolts against the system and rescues Chuhiya.