Cultural and Spiritual Ties in Water

 

Water gives the audience insight into the activities and the conditions in which widows are faced with every day (with the influence of their culture) during the Gandhi Movement....

After viewing Water, I was kind of confused. I didn’t catch when Kalyani committed suicide and the ending was kind of random with the “color” party. Maybe I didn’t understand because I was focusing on the subtitles to understand what they were saying and kind of got lost from there. If I watched it again, I believe I would have a different response than this one.

Water is so saturated in color and culture/ spiritual context. The activities and the conditions in which these people are in tells the audience a lot about their culture during the Gandhi Movement. There were lots of context and subtext surrounding the river (water) like everything and everyone’s life was circling around the subject of the river. Since the film was focused on widows, the film clearly explains what, how, and why things are what they are for widows in India. For example, why a widow must have a shaved head, which is because they are not allowed to remarry and shaving their heads makes them more undesirable. Also, the way the widows spend their days represented a cultural significance. For example, they all live together, they wear white “togas,” they eat certain foods, they sleep in the same room, they beg for money, and they act vulnerable and undesirable because of how their culture viewed widows. The way the director films these scenes by using close-ups, establishing and long shots, unique natural lighting and the use of natural camera movement (hand-held) enhances the serious conditions these widows face every day.

The water is such a huge spiritual symbol throughout this film and in India today. The water acts as holy water. People bathe, wash, clean, and pray with the holy water from the river because their culture revolves around the river. In the film, they mentioned that the water can wash the flees and sins of Kaalu, and wash mistakes off. The water is also a way of transportation literally and spiritually. Canoes are used as transportation between wealthy and poor sides of the river. Spiritually, the river is a path for the born and the dead – as to reborn into something else. Lastly, the water can be as a place to meet, gather, and be together and pray together. It is a chance to connect with one another and their God. The director adds some bits of nature within the frame of each scene to reference their cultural ties with water.

This film is filled with so much cultural and spiritual references and gives insight to how widows live and how they are treated in India. I can tell that the director took the time and effort to represent the emotional ties within the cultural relationship and widows with unique filming techniques. What shocked me is that these conditions is still going on today.

Water – 3.8/ 5 ☆

Photo Credits  (top to bottom):

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