Water (2005) on Netflix
In 1938 India, eight-year-old Chuyia is widowed and left at a widows' ashram in Banaras. She befriends Kalyani, a young widow in love with Narayan, an upper-class follower of Mahatma Gandhi.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.7/1015,865 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes91%
Trailer
Plot summary
In 1938, in British-ruled India, eight-year-old Chuyia loses her husband and is made a widow: her head is shaved, she is dressed in white and left at a house of widows in the holy city of Banaras, to live out her life in renunciation. Fourteen women share the dilapidated building, ruled by the elderly Madhumati. Chuyia keeps expecting her mother to fetch her home. She is drawn to Shakuntala, a widow who can read and who questions the lot of widows, and to Kalyani, a young widow courted by Narayan, an upper-class follower of Mahatma Gandhi. Kalyani agrees to leave with him for a new life in Calcutta.
Cast
- Saralaas Chuyia
- Sarala Kariyawasamas Chuyia (as Sarala)
- Buddhi Wickramaas Baba
- Rinsly Weerarathneas Chuyia's Husband
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- Iranganie Serasingheas Mother in Law (as Iranganee Serasinghe)
- Hermantha Gamageas Barber
- Rishma Malikas Snehalata
- Meera Biswasas Gyanvati
- Vidula Javalgekaras 'Auntie' Patiraji (as Dr. Vidula Javalgekar)
- Sanoja Bibileas Woman Bather
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Water (2005)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Deepa Mehta first tried to shoot Water in February 2000 with a completely different cast: Shabana Azmi, Nandita Das and Akshay Kumar were to have played the roles.
- On the day filming was to start, 2,000 protesters stormed the ghats, tore down and burned the main set and threw the pieces into the Ganges, acting on accusations about the film's subject that turned out to be false; the politician Arun Pathak also organized a suicide protest to stop production.
- Driven out of India, Mehta finally shot the film in Sri Lanka in 2003 with an entirely new cast and under the false title River Moon; her daughter Devyani Saltzman wrote a book about the ordeal, Shooting Water.
- A. R. Rahman walked away from the film during the nationwide controversy, so Mychael Danna wrote the background score instead; the songs Rahman had already composed, with lyrics by Sukhwinder Singh and Raqeeb Alam, stayed in.
