Just perfect...

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

This is perhaps one of the most gripping films I have ever seen. The theme of water is so beautifully intertwined with the story in the location shots, boats across a lake/river and the ever falling rain to deliver an impact upon the characters and their journey.The treatment of these widows, and the intense life that these women are forced to live was eye opening.John Abraham gave a good performance. Lisa Ray was decent. Chuiya was great. With its top-notch acting, cinematography and music, Water is definitely worth the watch. Excellent effort by Deepa Mehta. Awesome cinematography Giles Nuttgens. Nicely edited by Colin Monie. Screenplay by Anurag Kashyap was awesome so were his dialogues. Set decoration by Rumana hamied n Lal harindranath was brilliant. Good music by Mychael Danna n A.R Rehman. Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times @ The film is lovely in the way Satyajit Ray's films are lovely and the best elements of Water involve the young girl and the experiences seen through her eyes.

"Water" (2005) that was written and directed by Deepa Metha, the Indian- born Canadian film director and screenwriter, is a final part of her Elements trilogy, Fire, Earth, and Water. Each film deals with serious and often unknown outside of India problems that the country has inherited over its long history of religious traditions that always played highly important role in all aspects of Indian society. Water, a heart breaking tale of Indian widows, is set during the early 1940s and tells the compelling story of an eight-year-girl who learns that she became a widow. Her parents married her when she was an infant to an unknown man but were taking care of her until she was old enough to become a wife to the husband she never met. After his death, according to the holy laws the little girl had only three choices in her life: to burn with her husband on the funeral pyre, to marry his younger brother or to become untouchable and spend the rest of her life in an ashram - a shelter for widows at the temple, on the banks of the great river.Delicately beautiful and colorful film introduces the viewers to several unfortunate widows of different ages who whose families have abandoned them forever. The women have to live together and use any means possible for surviving. Pain, grief, loss, sacrifices are the essential parts of their daily struggles. Deepa Metha deserves every praise and award she has received for her memorable and passionate film which may shock the viewers who would not imagine what choices were available to a woman - widow back in the days and even now in some rural parts of India. But the film also praises the beauty of nature, joy of friendship, and eventually, it brings hope for better future for those women and their country.Not only is Water an exquisite work of art, it is an important social statement. So important, indeed, that the Indian government interfered with the production process, canceled the funding of the film, restricted Metha to shoot in India, and did not stop the fundamentalists' riots that threatened the physical violence toward the female director and the members of the crew.If the things have improved in India, as the officials proclaim, why the government hated so much just the idea of the film and caused all kinds of obstacles for Deepa Metha and her crew?

Water is a movie about widows that don't really try to escape being a widow or get remarried but one woman thought it was right and she should be able to get remarried. I think this movie is trying to tell us that if you truly believe it is right, and try, it can be achieved. This is kind of like living up to your own worldview. One example of someone living up to their worldview is when one widow wanted to get married and all the other widows wanted to stop her because they believed it would curse them. She fought through them and was able to take down the peer pressure because she truly loved that man. Her whole community was against her but she still was able to go for what she believed was right. Chuyia (the little girl) also showed how she tried to fight for her worldview because when she announced that one of the widows were going to get married, one of the older widows said she couldn't. Chuyia started stepping harshly on the older widow which shows how she was standing for what she believed was right. A final example of a widow trying to what she believes is right is when Didi takes the key from the elderly widow who locked up the widow that wanted to get married. She freed the widow so she could get married, but she knew this would make many have no respect for her. Overall many people in this movie did what they truly believed was the right thing to do in their situation, and some went beyond Gods commandments, not sure if God would be okay with it but it was her worldview and she thought it was true.Arc of Movie: This movie talked about a young widow (around 7 years old) being taken to a widow house with many other widows. She meets a widow named Kalyani who meets a man and wants to marry this man. Other widows say if she marries this man she will get cursed. Kalyani commits suicide and another widow doesn't want Chuyia (the little girl) to live with the other widows in their sad life so she gave Chuyia to the handsome man that Kalyani wanted to marry, when he was on a train with Gandhi.

I'd been meaning to watch this one for a while now, as the final chapter to the Elements Trilogy by Indo-Canadian director Deepa Mehta. Like "Earth", this film is set in pre-Liberation Colonial India. The background tensions of political struggles, class uprising and the clash of the very modern and the very ancient set the stage for a story of friendship, forbidden love, and human frailty.After losing her husband (by arranged marriage) to illness, 8-year-old Chuyia is forced to live in an ashram for widows, run by a cruel matriarch. She befriends Kalyani, a beautiful widow who is also under the control of the matriarch, and has been forced to become a prostitute. Into their lives comes a rich young lawyer whom they meet one day by the river, after which their lives are forever changed.Cinematography, screenplay, theme music (with excellent work by A.R. Rahman), and other production values are impeccable, and the film itself is a feast for the eyes. I can usually hold it together pretty well watching highly dramatic, emotional films, but this one was a close call. No spoilers, but keep the Kleenex handy ...