Water

 Water by Deepa Metha

The film is set in 1938 India, where the country is still under English rule. The presence of Mahatma Gandhi is just beginning to surface on the horizon, but the winds of change are starting to appear. The focus of the film is on the plight of widows who are cast out of society, because once a husband dies even if only in name, the wife loses half her identity. She is no longer considered of any value.

Yet Chuyia who is the catalyst for this film is only a mere child. She is eight years old,but already a widow without having had a childhood, let alone a womanhood, and now she is condemned to widowhood, which is to live a living death. An old man that she was married to without having realized that she was married to,  or to even have understood what that meant has now died.  She is sent off by her father to live in an Ashram of cast-off widows. We learn that widows are deprived of everything enjoyable in life , even something as a simple as a fried sweet. There is a very old woman in the ashram who is fixated on these sweets and talks constantly about them. Maybe it is only easier to focus on one deprivation than all the others but it is clear that everyone is miserable, including the fat head widow, who rules the roost and has privileges such as extra food and butter, that no one else has. But later on,  Chuyia with her generous and joyful nature procures some coins from begging which is one of the ways that the widows earn their keep, and Chuyia buys the old woman a laddu ( a fried sweet) from a street vendor,and brings it back to her. It is one of the loveliest moments in the film  to see the pure elation on the old woman’s face as she marvels at the miracle of this laddu, and greedily devours it while Chuyia watches her from behind a curtain with genuine happiness in watching the woman have a single moment of pure bliss in her otherwise wretched existence. 

Why are widows treated this way?It is in the holy scriptures, that is the common reason given for this barbaric treatment of these women. Narayan, one of the few enlightened male humans in the film says, and I paraphrase here -- that the real reason that this happens to widows is not because of religion as is commonly stated, even by the widows themselves-- but that real reason is evil in its most banal sense, particularly because it is simply a pragmatic approach to the problem of how to get rid of people that are now considered to be a burden. Again ,this seems to be a common theme of humans no matter what religion they believe in. It boils down to one less mouth to feed, four less saris, an empty spot in the corner as Narayan wisely concludes. 

It is hard for me as a cat, to comprehend the complexity of human religions. And even harder to understand, how humans can use religion to manipulate other humans, so that it benefits only a handful, and is most harmful to the rest. It is most particularly  harmful to the poor, the vulnerable , and oftentimes in certain cultures, in addition it is mostly women and children who suffer the most. It is of most benefit to those in power, namely men oftentimes just to satisfy their lustful desires.  And then on top it all , there is always the never ending cycle of animal abuse on every level, animals for food, animal sacrifice , animals for clothing, for work, everything to satisfy the needs of the insatiable human race for more and more power , justified in the name of religion. The only exception being Buddhism, that is why I can identify with being a Buddhist. They don't kill goats to please an unnamed God. In fact there is no God in Buddhism. Even the Buddha himself never referred to himself as any type of God, or anointed one.  He said he was a philosopher or an enlightened human being.

Narayan is from a well off family, they are of the Brahmin class,referred to as the gentry. They enjoy a privileged life of luxury , and protection from rules that seem to apply to others, but not to them. Narayan is an attorney to be, who has just passed his law exams, but in his heart , he believes that Gandhi speaks the truth, and he is influenced by Gandhi's thinking. He is intrigued by the idea of passive resistance, and freedom. The gentry and the widows are only separated by a mere boat ride across the Ganges river. Kalyani is a pretty widow who lives in the Ashram, she has been allowed to keep her long flowing hair, while all the others have been shaved bald by scissors and a razor scraped against their scalps including the child , Chuyia. It turns out that she has been pimped out across the river by the fat widow who runs the ashram,as another source of income for them. She someone rationalizes this  just as she rationalizes all her unfair and irrational behavior according to her whims. Sometimes in the name of religion when it suits her, and sometimes not , when it doesn't . 


Narayan falls in love with Kalyani after meeting her by accident after he helps Chuyia catch her puppy that they have been keeping secretly in the Ashram . He wants to marry Kalyani , but widows are not allowed to remarry, and things do not end well for Kalyani, despite the fact that Narayan would have married her despite his family's objections. And it is Narayan who winds up saving Chuyia as she is thrust onto a train heading out of the holy city of Varanasi , the same train that Mahatma Gandhi and his followers are on.

I must confess,as I have stated repeatedly, I just don't understand humans. It is hard from my vantage point to understand their ways. However this film has moved me in a way to understand that humans are not all the same, as perhaps I might have thought before my human consciousness. I saw them only in the broadest of strokes, and in terms of being only good or only evil.Now I understand that there is a long spectrum between the good and evil ones, and most reside somewhere in the middle, but still there are quite a few on either one of  extreme sides , similar to a bell curve graph. 

Chuyia does everything possible to remain optimistic, and full of spirit, despite the unbearable circumstances she has been throw into up her ultimate betrayal by the evil head of the Ashram. There is also another woman in the ashram who is caring. Her name is Shakuntala. She rescues Chuyia by taking her away from the Ashram after she has been turned into a prostitute, and brings her to a gathering near the train station where Gandhi is speaking in front of a crowd and then gets onto a train.  Shakuntala chases the train, pleading for someone to take Chuyia to give to Gandhi, where she believes the child will be protected and watched over. No one responds, but than it turns out that Narayan is on that very same train to follow Gandhi. He is leaving his pampered life behind because he can no longer tolerate the disgusting hypocrisy  that members of his own class abide by. 

 Shakuntala literally tosses Chuyia into Naranyan's arms as the train is moving out of the station in the hopes that she will have a better life than the miserable one she was slated to. Shakuntala has risked a lot to do this for Chuyia, it would have been easier just to look the other way as the other widows did, not to worry about what happened to Chuyia. But Shakuntala too have been moved by the winds of change. She has been forced to question her own faith, the faith that she has worked so hard to maintain, even though her faith is what has kept her downtrodden for so long. It is only when she begins to look towards truth, that she becomes brave. 

 Gandhi himself says at the meeting before he departs with his followers on the train, and I paraphrase here as well, that  he used to believe in God first, and then the truth, but now he believes in in truth first and then God. 

I hope one day we too will have our own Gandhi. A Gandhi for cats that maybe will be one of our own. Again, one can only hope, and maybe pray to an unknown God. But I believe now that Gandhi's way is best . I will pray to the truth first , and then to a God , if indeed there is one. 

Namaste

Xoxo, Coco