Friday, March 10, 2006

Reflections on "Water," the film by Deepa Mehta

The palette in each frame, stark Modernist canvases, pillars, ground, simple, clean. The colour of the moon. Light as a wash over the world, the way water catches the light, the figures of hidden women, what moves across the landscapes of muted colour, women who dwell in colours of the Madonna's veils. Trapped in a caste system as rigid as the iron bars through which scenes are shot.

The women always framed in boxes, closed in, shuttered away.

The gigantic-limbed tree where the lovers meet like a blossoming, flow of the heart. She carries the light for him, visitation of a vision, where freedom may be, the candle she holds at her breast, the light of everything. She is a Religious painting of divinity, beautiful; Durga, Mary.

Ghandi who would free the enslaved of a rigid ideology. Riots and refusals in India for filming, for showing. Thirty one million widows today.

The widow is the virgin; beggar, or prostitute. Where acceptance, love is not possible. Who would not drown themselves? Who could not accept the warm caress of infinity in the waters when the ravaged heart beats like a wounded bird who's fallen out of its cage?

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4 comments:

  1. Ah, I was hoping you would write about this. It sounds very beautiful and very harsh at the same time, not surprisingly.

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  2. mb, it was as brilliant as it was beautifully composed and I highly recommend it.

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  3. If you ever get the chance to see it, do. The uppermost layer of the plot is about a child-bride, a little girl who's 8 years old, whose husband dies and who's deposited at the widow's quarters to live out the rest of her life. There is another layer on love, which inspired my writing, and then the historical backdrop of the changes Ghandi was proposing which wrap the film like a mantle of hope. When Mehta tried to film it originally in India the sets were vandalized and her life was threatened by a mob of Hindu extremists; she eventually filmed it 'under cover' in Sri Lanka seven years later. The film was released in 2005 and was banned in India, which is very tragic...

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  4. Although I would be a man, I share your point of view. I like much your texts and like your paintings! I will often return to visit your blog.

    Bien que je sois un homme , je partage votre point de vue .
    J'aime beaucoup vos textes ainsi que vos peintures !
    Je reviendrai souvent visiter votre blog .

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