Water film
Water is a drama film produced in 2005 and set in the 1930s when India was under the British protectorate. During this time in history, the Indian community was characterized by cultural malpractices such as child marriage and segregation and the discrimination of women, particularly widows. The plot of the movie, therefore, revolves around the lives of widows at what can be described as a Hindu monastery in the city of Varanasi. One of the characters, Chuyia, is an eight-year-old child who is widowed at the tender age, and in observing the traditions of her culture, she is forced to shave her head and dress in white. She is also sent to an ashram, which is a Hindu monastery.
At the ashram, she joins 14 other widows who had been sent their earlier to get rid of bad karma and also relive their families of the burden of having to take care of the financial and emotional needs of them. The ashram is in a dilapidated state and is managed by Madhumati a seventy-year-old woman who, with the help of a hijra, occasionally indulges in marijuana smoking. Madhumati also corporates with the hijra to prostitute one of the women, Kalyani, at the ashram to various clients. Kalyani had been forced into prostitution by Madhumati to raise funds for the ashram. Another outstanding character is Shakuntala, who comes out as not only attractive but also witty with her ability to read. Shakuntala grows attached to Chuyia after she arrives at Ashram and eventually plans gets married to Narayuan, one of the priests and agrees moves to another city, Calcutta.
In one incident Kalayani is ferried out for prostitution where she drowns herself after discovering that Naryan’s father was to be her next client. Narayan confronts his father and decides to join Mahatma Gandhi. Meanwhile at the ashram, Madhumati resorts to prostituting Chuyia after the death of Kalyani. Chuyia is however traumatized by the events while Shakuntala attempts to comfort her. The movie ends with Shakuntala handing Chuyia to her fiancé Narayan during one of Gandhi’s visits at one of the train stations.
This movie is therefore set in India in the colonial times of the 1930s at a time when women and especially widows were despised and discriminated against. The main characters in the movie are negatively affected the cultural view of widows at that time in history. Since there are no widowers present at the asylum, it can be concluded that the cultural views of the religion and Hindu society were gender based according to the film. Women were thus sent to asylums which were poorly maintained without any form of financial aid and regarded by society as products of bad karma who should not stress others due to their need for both emotional and financial support.
We can also observe a demonstration of gender inequality from how women were forced into early marriages. Women were not given an equal chance to life as men as they were forced into marriages as early as eight years old. This can be observed at the Ashram where Chuyia one of the major characters had been sent after being widowed at a tender age of eight years. We can also see gender inequality at the ashram where only one women among the widows, Shakuntala, was literate. Narayan in the movie also comes out as very educated and financially stable also a reflection of gender inequality.
The gender roles as portrayed in the movie are also of concern in the cultural setting since the only significant role given to women is getting married. There is limited opportunity for the widows in the movie to generate income and fend for themselves and as a result, the ashram principle resorts to sending at least one of them to prostitution in order to generate funds for the facility. In conclusion, the movie Waters tries to paint a clear picture of the social situation in India during the colonial times. As in most societies, Indian women were oppressed by the