About the damaged women, the film [Water], also nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, is more direct. Water is the source of life, and the Ganges is the holy water that can wash away sins. In the ten-minute essay, Bertolucci took water as a symbol of age and life. Here, in Deepa Mehtade's film, everything is different, water may have hope, but carries too much sin. The Taiwanese translation of the title of the film, "Bad Water", is more able to arouse our resonance - the scapegoat of the panacea in ancient Chinese society. In a male-dominated world, women become dumb vassals, "others", and are left to be shaped by the "world". Like the widows that the film focuses on, whether they are in their prime years or young and ignorant, once the "husband" they label disappears, they will throw away everything in the world and gather to observe the festival. Compared with the tradition of burial or self-immolation, this seems to have been quite "progressive", especially ironically, the strict caste system has also been declared invalid in such a mixture.
The girl Chuyia runs through the whole film. She was married by her parents when she was ignorant, and her "husband" returned to the West when she was ignorant. In "The Widow's House", she encounters women of all shapes and sizes, silent, tyrannical, or dreamlike wedding fragments. Kalyani with long hair, beautiful and friendly, met true love but was crushed by sin. Water is the friend of women. No matter life or belief, life or death are closely related, but the originally sacred water has become the carrier of sin... In the end, even Chuyia was swallowed by sin.
[Water] and the previous [Earth] and [Fire] form a trilogy of elements about India. The director's bold criticism of Indian society has angered countless conservatives. They tried their best to make trouble when it was released, which delayed the filming that was supposed to start in 2000. It was not until 2003 that the filming in Sri Lanka started secretly. , when it was released in 2005, the experience was even worse. Religious influence in India
In society, the concept of hierarchy is deeply rooted, and under this background, the fate of women is even more tragic. Although the government has made efforts to improve the situation of women through legislation, the traditional concept represented by the "Manual Code" has hindered this process. Even today, marriage is still often the sword of Damocles for Indian women. More deadly, the long-term discrimination against women has planted deep rifts in society. I remember watching an Indian short film once, a Kolkata girl who had no support and a group of homeless children roamed the streets with no future and no goals. Discrimination naturally deprives them of normal communication with the world, not to mention the acquisition of knowledge through education, and ultimately leaves them in a situation of being bound and fooled forever. And a considerable number of women with distorted minds have become part of evil, such as Madhumati in the film, which is also not uncommon in the real world.
After pointing out social problems through collective tragedy, the director uses the film to give a direction. Judging from the early Indian reformists Ram Mohan Roy and Mahatma Gandhi who are constantly mentioned in the film, women's liberation and national independence are a process of approaching. The widespread dissemination of modern democratic ideas has given women equal opportunities. Gandhi gave a speech at the train station. The sun was soft on him, with a rare warmth. The radiance of the saints is the hope for the future. Shakuntala, an educated Brahmin woman, saves the devastated girl and entrusts her to Gandhi's followers, which is the director's ultimate hope. In the hustle and bustle of the crowd, she was thoughtful, just now she kept the little future that the women had left.
The story of the film takes place in 1938, when men, with the support of social power, achieved the monopoly of yin and yang over women. And new ideas have gradually loosened this inhumane social custom, but the road to women's independence is extremely long, no matter India or the world. The subtitle at the end of the film brings this reality: "According to a survey in 2001, there are still more than 34,000 widows in India. Their situation is not far from the Manu period more than 2,000 years ago."
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