Deepa Mehta’s WATER Is Canada’s Entry for the Oscars
by Andre Soares
Deepa Mehta’s Water, starring Lisa Ray, Seema Biswas, and John Abraham, has been chosen as Canada’s entry for the 2006 Best Foreign-Language Film Academy Award.
Set in the Indian holy city of Varanasi, the Hindi-language Water is now eligible as a Canadian entry for the foreign-language Oscar because of recent regulation changes enacted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences earlier this year. Prior to the changes, countries could only submit films containing a large chunk of dialogue in one of their official languages. Now, any language is acceptable as long as most of the dialogue is not in English.
Water, about the plight of a group of widows forced into poverty in Varanasi, was nominated for nine Genie Awards — the Canadian Oscars — winning three: Best Actress (Biswas), Best Cinematography (Giles Nuttgens), and Best Original Score (Mychael Danna). Water is the third segment of a film trilogy that began with Earth in 1996, followed by Fire in 1998.
The Indian-born Mehta had to leave India while filming Water because of street riots and death threats. Fundamentalist Hindus were angered by what they perceived as an attack against their religion and customs. Production was halted, but — much to the Indian government’s displeasure — was later resumed in Sri Lanka.
Amita Nijhawan places Water, Fundamentalist Hindus, and government and religious hypocrisy in a historical context in the Media/Culture Journal.
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Water, A very moving move to watch. I watch the movie with out subtitles and I was able to feel the passion, emotions and feel the story come alive. I was in tears from start to finish…which is vary rare for a movie to tough my heart in that way.
With much peace
I haven’t seen “Water,” yet. Will catch it on DVD in the very near future — along with “Earth” and “Fire.”