Hello! The Indian-themed "Pauper Rich" recently made a big splash at the Oscars and is well known. But I'm reminded of "Water" which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2007 Oscars, an excellent movie that may not be known by everyone, but is certainly a truer reflection of India at the time than "Pauper Rich". The director is the Indo-Canadian woman director Tipa Mehta. Water is the last installment of her Elemental Trilogy.

The movie is about a special group of widows in India during the Gandhian era. The movie takes the perspective of three widows of different ages, and tells their different destinies. 7-year-old girl Chouya becomes a widow in her ignorance, and is sent to the "Widow's Home", where she meets the beautiful Kali Anne, who is in her twenties. The other is Shakuntala, a middle-aged widow who is religious and faces her destiny in peace and quiet at the Widow's Home.

The young girl, Xenia, fantasizes about returning home, while Kalyani is offered to a Brahmin nobleman from time to time in exchange for the expenses needed to keep the Widow's Home alive. Later on, Kali Anne meets a young man who is about to become a lawyer, and the two fall in love at first sight. But when she discovers that his father is the same nobleman, she commits suicide in despair. Though the death of Kali Anne does not make Shakuntala finally change her mind, she wants the youth to take Akiya far away, so that the young girl will never have to live such a life again. The movie leaves a bright tail here. But it is still striking to see the subtitles at the end, that as late as 2001, tens of millions of widows in India were still living the life of Gandhi's time.

In addition to these three widows, the movie also reflects the lives of other elderly widows, all of whom are basically miserable. In fact, the law in India at that time allowed widows to remarry, but the public never publicized it. What is even more chilling is the fact that those families kicked the widows out of their homes just to save one's ration, and religion was just an excuse. China has also made Widow's Village, but the two are really not comparable.

This movie touched me is all the Indian movies are not as good, no conventional song and dance, although the story is very tragic, but the shooting is very beautiful, the Ganges River sparkling light, the temple point of candlelight, and those rain and morning light, all exudes a soft and quiet light, and those melodious and beautiful Indian ancient music throughout. Sometimes I feel like the mood of the Vietnam movie with hero Chen is very similar.

Water in India is known as holy water, and its meaning in the movie is also a variety of symbolism. So is water also a kind of shackle?

We also recommend that you watch "Moon River" is not the same as the Indian film

Probably around the Qingming Festival, in the CCTV-6 of the good films have about to see the "Moon River", the film is a co-production of India and Canada, by the Indian female director Mehta shot, it changed the Indian film song and dance laughter warm, the film flow of grief and suffering, as if diffuse embankment of the river, slowly dipped in the heart of the audience! When watching Moon River, there is always a little bit of indescribable sadness in my heart, along with the music inside, looking at the characters in the story of the painful struggle, the pain in my heart spread throughout the body. Before watching this movie, I watched the Indian movie is just a song and dance movie, reflecting the scene of song and dance, and this one is a complete reversal of logic, which uses the subject is the oppressed living conditions of the Indian widows, the previous I never understand, the original in the world, there is such a place, they are backward traditions of confinement, and there is such a group of people, they are subjected to that kind of unjustified treatment.

The movie describes the tragic life of a group of widows in a "widow's home" in India in the 1920s and 1930s. According to Hinduism, once a person is born, he or she is divided into four castes: Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras, and the higher the caste, the closer he or she is to God. There are also untouchables, called "untouchables", who are expelled from the castes. Widows belong to the untouchable class, and the Hindu Code of Manu states: "Widows deserve to suffer and die in chastity...A wife who is chaste after the loss of her husband can go to heaven...A woman who is unchaste is reborn as a wolf in the next life." There are only three fates for a woman after her husband's death: to be buried for her husband; to marry her husband's brother; and to atone for her sins by imprisoning herself in a "widow's home". Widows living in the "Widow's Home" are not only deprived of all their property, but also have to live in isolation, not being able to attend any social activities, and can only rely on the daily chanting of sutras, in exchange for a small bowl of rice that can only satisfy their hunger, and some of them are forced to prostitute themselves in the name of the gods for the pleasure of the powerful and rich of the higher castes. They live in misery and wait for death in despair.

The protagonist, Carrie Anne, is a young widow, beautiful as an angel. By chance, she meets Narayan, a young master of the Brahmin caste, a handsome young man who espouses truth and follows Gandhi, and the two fall in love at first sight. Narayan is adamant about marrying Carrie Anne despite her mother's objections. Carrie Anne, inspired by love, breaks through the stereotypes of religion and tradition and escapes from the "widow's home". On her way home, she learns that Narayan's father was a Brahmin nobleman who had toyed with her. Shame makes Carrie Anne reject Narayan's love. The shock of her helplessness led her to choose the "holy river" and martyr herself to the cruel system.

Another eight-year-old widow, Chuya, is also sent to the "Widow's Home" by her family after her husband, whom she has never met, dies of an illness. The young Chuya is innocent, stubborn and honest, she rebels against the life in the "widow's home", convinced that she will return home, she is a rebel of false religion, represents the bright colors of humanity and hope. Little Chuya firmly believe that the love of Carrie Anne and Narayan, and Carrie Anne Ya sympathy, inseparable, stealing puppies, playing games, in the dead silence of life, looking for a little happiness. After Carrie Annea throws herself into the river, little Chuya is tricked into going across the river to the home of a Brahmin aristocrat for the lustful pleasure of the powerful, and is rescued and put on a train for Gandhi's preaching...?

The woes and misfortunes of these widows come under the aura of Hindu holiness. The same absurd logic that it is God's will for widows to be chaste for their deceased husbands, and it is also God's will for the high caste power brokers to lust after them, enjoys unquestionable sanctity because it comes from the group of people who are claimed to be the closest to God, too. Where is this God speaking, it is clearly man pretending to be God, taking advantage of the mystery of legends, teachings, and traditions to do the work of fulfilling his selfish desires. Here is the address to watch it online: /u57/v_NTA3MjY0MTQ.html ? /search/?kw=%E6%9C%88%E4%BA%AE%E6%B2%B3 ? I hope the answer can help you LZ, thank you!