water - by deepa mehta

i heard the name of this movie long ago. that it is a little unorthodox movie from bollywood. last week i had the opportunity to watch it. and i must agree its very well directed, well written movie. it showed the misery of the hindu widows. i was always confused, which one is the main script for the hindu. by the "laws of manu", a hindu religious text a widow should die along with her husband or leave a life with no living desire! or almost something like that.

the story line is ..... In 1938 India an 8 year old girl, who barely even remembers her wedding and has little comprehension of her marriage, has just been widowed. Required by ancient Hindu laws to now leave society, she is brought to a dilapidated widow house or ashram where, according to custom, her hair will be shorn, her clothes exchanged for white robes and the rest of her life, until her death, will be spent in renunciation. But the feisty, precocious, disbelieving Chuyia soon turns the house upside down with her rebellious spark. She begins to have a profound effect on the other women who live there, in particular the devout Shakuntala and the beautiful Kalyani, who has been forced into prostitution by the domineering head widow, Madhumati. It is Chuyia who leads Kalyani to meet the alluring law student and Gandhi nationalist Narayan, with whom Kalyani falls in love, despite the taboos. What happens next--an attempt at escape fueled by passion and bravery--will change Chuyia forever and bring both tragedy and an unexpected ray of hope to the widow house."[review www.hollywood.com]

the two vital point that amazed me are -

1. by the hindu laws, lower castes[also widws] are untouchables, but a brahmin can rape them. more over its for their own good. raping by a brahmin more like a favor to the helpless ppl!!!!!! and ppl believe that!!!!!!!!!!
2. they believe that so much, that Kalyani willingly went to get the 'favor' in a brahmin's home, as a prosititute!

now, how blind someone needs to be to act like that. i was feeling rage while watchin the movie, not towards the brahmin, but the ppl who believe that. may be, ppl who wants to get beaten should be beaten.