Water By ken eisner
Publish Date: 3-Nov-2005 Directed by Deepa Mehta. Starring Lisa Ray, Seema Biswas, and Sarala. Rated PG. Opens Friday, November 4, at the Fifth Avenue Cinemas Deepa Mehtas movies always have something going for them. Whether its the ambition of her ideas or the richness of her imagination or the innate grittiness of her humour, individual moments in Sam & Me, Fire, Earth, and Bollywood/Hollywood stick in the mind. On the other hand, the good parts are frequently undercut by certain flaws in the execution: a weak performance butted up against a good one, silliness masquerading as farce, or sometimes just a simple lack of funding. Water, the completion of her elemental trilogy, as referred to above, is the first film in which she gets the best pieces in all the right places. The story, set 10 years before Indian independence, centres on Chuyia (played by Sarala), an eight-year-old imp sent to live in an austere ashram in Benares (now Varanasi) because the man she married died of some unnamed illness. Its a bit hard for her, and us, to understand that she is expected to spend the rest of her life in this poverty-stricken purgatory. Initially bullied by a mean-spirited alpha female (the likewise single-named Manorama), she finds better care in the hands of a more introspective woman (Seema Biswas) who comes to question the validity of some Hindu practices. And Chuyia finds an even warmer friend in Kalyani (Lisa Ray), a young beauty who, alone among the widows, is allowed to keep her long hairthe better for the local drag-queen pimp (Raghuvir Yadav) to ferry her favours across the Ganges to wealthy Brahmins who pay for the privilege. By chance, Kalyani happens to meet Narayan (U.K.-based John Abraham), a handsome, young Brahmin lawyer who champions the progressive ideas of Gandhi, much to the dismay of his friends and parents, who are on that side of the river. Although Narayan only vaguely grasps the role Kalyani is forced to play, and its connection to his higher caste, he is determined to upset the prevailing order, even if doing so has dire consequences. Once these pawns are in play, Mehtas tale advances with the inevitability of an ancient fable, albeit one with modern resonance. There are a few sticking points. Mehtas romantic leads are many shades lighter-skinned than the people around them (and the film was actually shot in Sri Lanka), suggesting that they are somehow more attractive because of that, although this perspective is certainly not unique to foreign-based Indian directors. More troubling, perhaps, is the inertness of Abrahams character, who is such a perfect fellow that it drains some drama from the conflict. Still, its a small nit to pick for a film that manages to be sensuous and funny while getting its social messages across with coherent powe http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=13887 "We neglect our cities at our peril. For, in neglecting them, we neglect the nation." -John F. Kennedy ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/iyUplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Explore, Experience, Enjoy A.R.Rahman - The Man, The Music, The Magic. Only at arrahmanfans.com - The definitive A.R.Rahman e-community. Homepage: http://www.arrahmanfans.com Admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/arrahmanfans/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
