Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

DeadMan66 Movie is so emotional that you can't hold your tears. It a love story of a widow woman and man from 1938. It lot of social practice were present in back those days in India which people call it culture. I almost cried at the end and didn't went how I was expecting. Main theme of movie is to show how social evil practice were present like child marriage, widow have to live their life miserable. And in the name of culture they were running sex. I don't want to spoil the movie so I'll keep it short. I don't know why this movie is banned in India even after Independence and when all social evil practice are stopped. I think the mind set of people is still not developed on these issues.

SnoopyStyle It's 1938 India. Seven year old Chuyia is sent by her family to live in pious poverty in a Hindu ashram for widows after her husband dies. The ashram is run by dictatorial Madhumati. Gulabi works with Madhumati to pimp out Kalyani (Lisa Ray). Narayan is a young follower of Mahatma Gandhi who falls for Kalyani. Shakuntala is the only one who can stand up to Madhumati. She's literate and conflicted about her faith.This is an exotic slice of a foreign world in a specific time. I don't want to hate on a child actor but centering the movie on the girl may be too much on her. This reminds me of a prison movie. This is a prison build by religion and traditions. I want more tension from the situation but it is a very fascinating world.

SerenaY HK The people who make a difference in this world are nothing more than people who listen to their conscience. This is a profound idea found in a movie that made those people who listened to their conscience the focal point of the movie. That movie is Water, written and directed by Deepa Mehta. While filming, Mehta received many death threats for her work on this controversial film focused on the concepts of misogyny and ostracism of female widows in India. Set in 1938 India under British rule, it begins with young seven year old Chuyia (Sarala Kariyawasam) being awoken and told by her father that her arranged husband has just died, making her a widow. She is a victim of the previously common practice of child marriage. Then she is whisked off to an ashram in rural Varanasi where many other widows also live. Widows in the Hindu India have a lower position in society. The fourteen widows in the ashram are expected to live out the rest of their lives in poverty, hardship, and worshiping of Gods. They live in a tiny two-floor house, living there to repent bad karma and to relieve their families of financial and emotional hardships. The only reason why I didn't give the movie a 10/10 is because of the multiple scenes that dragged on for a little bit too long and it was hard for me to understand some parts. For example, it was hard to understand why she demanded the boat to turn around and why she drowned herself in the river was unclear to me because I couldn't keep track of the men outside of the ashram, besides Narayan, that later turned out to be her clients. Overall, this movie has a beautiful and moving plot that uncovers many truths in the Hindu society for Indian women. I had known that in the Hindu religion, women that have husbands passed away, were burned on occasion, but I would have never known about the mental and emotional pain felt by these excluded women. For example, Narayan's mother's reaction to his announcement of them getting married, the rude street vendor who wanted to get rid of Chuyia, Madhumati who locks Kalyani away in a room so that she can't get remarried, and the deplorable men who exploited Kalyani and Chuyia. With Deepa Mehta's film, all these hardships have been intelligently brought to life for the thirty-four million widows in India since 2001 that are still living under social, economic, and cultural impoverishment engraved upon them two-thousand years ago by the Sacred Texts of Manu. She highlights characters Narayan, Kalyani, Shakuntala, and Chuyia in the film as people who speak out about these rules that bound widows. This is what makes them different from other people, they act on their consciousness.

museumofdave From the first electrifying moments when an eight year old bride is told her husband is dead and her head must be shaved and she must leave home to the boffo finish, this is a spectacularly photographed, moving drama about human potential wasted by traditions no longer viable.As with so many historical epics based on some kind of truth, every single incident cannot be accurate, and any film questioning religion of any kind is bound to have detractors--that said, there should be no question that the treatment of children and widows in this film is reprehensible.In this deeply felt film, love of all kinds also manages to flourish amid the squalor, whether the love of a outcast for her dog, or of a formally educated lawyer for a simple country girl condemned to a vow of poverty. This is a stunning film in many ways, capturing a glorious feeling of 1938 India (although it was actually filmed in Sri Lanka). It's an admirable story, well told.