More than a day has passed and I have not been able to completely come out of that haunted state I was yesterday. The reason - Water. This Oscar entree of 2007 is sure to leave every set of its audience spell bound - not just with the grief imbibed in the story but also with the magnificent performances of Seema Biswas and Sarala and as they say the best of performances are they that make you cry and laugh with them (the latter though happens less frequently compared to the former).
Based in India of late 1930's,with the national movement in full swing, the movie begins with portraying the innocence of child widow Chuiya who is too young to remember she was married and cannot understand what marriage and widowhood are all about.On teh other hand you have the beautiful Kalyani(Lisa Ray) who inspite of being forced(by her own Widow Ashram's big head!!!) to do the Forbidden is typically one of those characters who can inspite of beinga hand's distance away from happiness can still not touch it. You can't stop exclaiming "Please God anything but not that!" when Kalyani and Narayan (John Abraham) are crossing the river to Narayan's house. Alas! Couldn't it just have been someone else!!
Seems Biswa's role as the Didi of the Ashram is one who wants to be protective,but is helpless, strengthless but still has hope, in spite of having long passed her chances of reaching the destination(having a family of her own).But when she listens to Gandhiji and realizes that God is not whom she has been worshipping every morning but is the one she has been subduing all the time, she doesn't delay time in doing the best, not for herself, but for Chuiya who is too young to be destined to a fate like herself.
The scenes where Chuiya's childhood is thrashed in the bungalow across the river: Chuiya's humanity in fulfilling the last wish of Dadi(which after all was to eat a laddoo!!) a risk; Chuiya's repeated questioning about when her mother is going to come back to take her home are definite to leave your eyes wet.
As for me, I only hope there are not any more of these characters amongst us and as I said at the beginning I hope it is just a story!
