Originally posted by: MonicA#1Actress
I saw Water, and I literally went through an entire box of Kleenex tissues๐ญ. I read about the sets being destroyed 5 years ago, and the film being banned in India and Pakistan.
I feel the movie was brilliant. But many people (Indians mostly) feel it show-cased India negatively. I have heard arguments where people claim that "It doesn't happen anymore" or "Deepa wants the west to think of India badly". Then I hear that Water was based in the 1930's, so there is no need to showcase it right now.(Then why does India make movies about 1947 partition in India?, when it happened in the 1940's, when it isn't happening now?๐)
I don't think Deepa Mehta has show-cased India badly. Rather, she wanted people to know that ashrams still do exist today (WHICH THEY DO).
Instead, I feel the people who protested against Water being filmed and burning the sets are the ones degrading our image. Clearly, they don't want to accept the fact that the Indian society has to make changes in some traditions. Also, they proved how backwards they are themselves. If they claim everything today is not the same as it was many years ago, then why is there still stigma associated with female widows remarrying even today??
What are your views on Water and the message it conveyed??
Another fabuous post. ๐
I think the trouble is that we cannot accept anything that makes us look crass and crude and unjust. We are overly protective of our image, and we are not taught to judge ourselves, especially the elders.. and to criticize.
I loved water except that I felt the romance between Lisa Ray and John Ab remained a bit half baked. Other than that, the movie provided excellent critic of life in those ashrams.
We should be proud to have leaders such as DK karve, Jyotirao Phule who remarried widows even prior to the time showe in the movie Water. ๐ I am !! But since it depicts the Indian traditions at the time in barbaric light (the getting rid of hair, the leading lady who pimps Lisa, Lisa's forced visits to renouned figure in the society, and her anguish and death).
I think as long as it depicts UPLIFTMENT and PROGRESS, it makes a great movie. No culture is perfect, and we should accept that ours is neither. I loved the ending / should I say beginning for the little girl as she escaped!! That was a very positive angle.๐ It is not as if they showed all Indians to be barbaric. It was a movie about HOPE.
But all the earlier described scenario tarns the IMAGE that we DEARLY care about.. while bride burning, dowry and sati still happen in 2007.
As you rightly said, we are not open-minded. We like to believe that bad things happen outside of our territories.. Canada entered WATER for Oscar nomination, while we managed to ban it.
FIRE was a fabulous movie, also banned in India for similar reasons. One should open their eyes and ask instead whether FIRE happens really? If incest happens, why not fire? And if all this is happening anyway, then why ban WATER?? ๐๐
Edited by mermaid_QT - 17 years ago
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