Saturday, May 19, 2007

"Truth is God," said Ghandi






I saw a deeply moving film on DVD, "Water," by gifted filmmaker Deepa Mehta. This luminous, and provocative portrayal of the plight of India's widows, is set in the 1930's against Ghandi's rise to power. Extremist groups in India "waged a campaign of death threats and riots to stop the production of this controversial film." Water is the story of Chuyia, an Indian girl married and widowed at the age of eight and sent afterwards to an ashram where Hindu widows must live in penitence. Its gorgeous music was composed by Mychael Danna. Water, is a film that speaks directly to the heart and to purity.

The power and beauty of spiritual traditions must somehow be preserved as human create more equitable social orders. The struggle between conscience and faith is universal and belongs to all of us. This theme is underscored in this film and it will be recognized in the future as a classic. The film's poeticism is reminiscent of Sajit-Rei.

3 comments:

jac said...

The second pic of the rose is wondeful!

Diane Dehler said...

jac- after your comment I looked at that rose more closely. Thanks.

Cyan said...

Deepa Mehta is brilliant. If you haven't seen the other two films in the elements trilogy, I highly recommend checking them out.

Earth is possibly my favorite (although it's difficult to choose). It deals with the partition of India and Pakistan...and again, the soundtrack is gorgeous...