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Is Water Oscar material?
Will Water taste global Box Office glory, asks Saibal Chatterjee.
The enthusiastic critical and audience response to Deepa Mehta's Water on the opening night of the 30th Toronto International Film Festival has generated a new wave of hope for Indian-made cinema.
Mehta's long-in-gestation labour of love has earned rave reviews and wholehearted popular applause. The question is: will the positive initial reactions translate into global box office glory?
North American film critics believe it will. While Variety has forecast appreciable arthouse success for Water in the US and Canada, Hollywood Reporter is of the opinion that the film "should find appreciative audiences worldwide".
A Hindi-language Canadian-funded film made on a completely Indian subject with actors from the subcontinent, Water is a truly international product. That would make keeping track of its long-term fate in the world market all the more interesting.
The fact that Water was chosen to kick off one of the biggest film festivals of the world is as much a vindication of the multicultural nature of Canadian society as it is an endorsement of the moviemaking talent pool available in India.
Sadly, the world's largest film-producing nation churns out such an overload of glossy inanities in the name of cinema that it has rarely ever been in serious contention for an authentic global profile. Yes, occasional films have sought to raise the bar against the run of the spool. Water is obviously the latest in that small but honourable stream of Indian films.
Set in late 1930s colonial India, Water captures the plight of widows compelled by outmoded social traditions to lead a life of privation, servility and exploitation. By playing off the rising tide of nationalism and the progressive ideals espoused by Mahatma Gandhi against the unbearable conditions in which these women exist, Mehta has obviously sought to achieve an element of balance in the portrayal of a complex society in flux.
The shoot was disrupted and the sets erected in Varanasi destroyed by Hindu fundamentalists when Mehta sought to film Water, the third part of her 'elemental' trilogy (after Fire and Earth), in 2000. The film was subsequently shot in utter secrecy and under an assumed title in Sri Lanka with a completely new cast, including a Sri Lankan village girl, Sarala, in the role of an eight-year-old widow.
The cast of Water also features John Abraham, Lisa Ray and Seema Biswas -- all of them have garnered positive reviews for their performances.
Consider the glowing critical notices that Water has drawn. Hollywood Reporter says: "Its sheer beauty and compelling storytelling is equal to its social protest".
The critic goes on to say: "Water is another in the new wave of Indian movies that seek to bring Indian culture and cinema to audiences beyond the Indian diaspora. The story does require a bit more understanding of Indian history and culture than, say, Monsoon Wedding… (Yet) the issues of sexual inequality explored here transcend all cultural references…"
A critic writing for Eye Weekly is equally generous: "Given its troubled production history, one might expect Water to overflow with righteous indignation, but Mehta, whose connection and belief in the material, has shaped her rage into a lucid and moving testament to those forced by religious imperatives into institutionalised suffering."
The same reviewer asserts: "Water marks a return to relevance for Deepa Mehta after the twin disappointments of Bollywood/Hollywood and Republic of Love."
For Variety, Deepa Mehta's latest film is a "profoundly moving drama" that deftly balances "epic socio-political scope with intimate human emotions, all polished to high technical gloss". According to this critic, "an unerringly stately pace infuses these characters with a quiet dignity that elevates his material".
So, can this Water flow the whole distance? Those who have seen it in Toronto describe it as a film that tugs at the heart and could actually be in with a chance if it were put up as India's nomination for the Oscars. But for that to happen Water has to get past the Indian censors and into the domestic multiplexes.
Mehta, on her part, is understandably keen to see her film get full play in India. "The film is about India - it should be shown there," the feisty filmmaker told a press conference at the Toronto Film Festival. The Toronto-based writer-director's worries are easy to understand in the light of the myopia that afflicts India's censorship machinery.
She is, of course, at pains to underscore the film's humanism. Mehta told the Toronto Sun: "It's rather simplistic but that's what it is. That there is room for redemption and hope, however grim things are, that the human spirit does have that ability to do something that is selfless, even under the most horrendous circumstances."
Happily, the North American end of the film's life is already taken care of. Water goes into Canadian distribution in early November, while Fox Searchlight Pictures have acquired the film for the US market.
A strong beginning has clearly been made. Much will now depend on whether the Film Federation of India, the apex industry body that selects the nation's Foreign Language Best Picture Oscar nominee, has the foresight to see the potential inherent in Mehta'st film and push it all the way up to Oscar night glory. Indications available so far suggest that Water would deserve no less.
