Flowing like ..... Water

This weekend was spent doing some of the most mundane things. Lazed around, read a magazine, touched on Wodehouse, cleaned up lot of neglected closets, bathed at leisure without even bothering about time. Watched a movie and thought I might just crash. Pretty ordinary, peaceful day till then and yet memorable, in terms of the time I got for myself, quite a change from the ordinary. Must say, the rat race is pretty abhor able.

With world cup finals having started, my sis came up with the proposition of watching ‘Water’ – Deepa Mehta film. I must say, I was a little weary at that time in the night to watch it. But then, had been postponing this particular movie for a while now and the idea to watch a good movie won over my sleep deprivation.

I really don’t wish to do any kind of movie review here, but then it was simply excellent! Strong in its story line, subtle in portrayal of situations with a nice under current to be felt by the viewer accompanied by some very good cast and direction to back up. Water, was straight and hard-hitting. A seven year old little girl is married and then widowed and left in the widow aashram as that is the custom of the times. She is waiting for her mother to come and take her back home. How heart wrenching can that be? The supposed explanation she is given is “When the husband dies, half of the woman dies and hence an aashram is the best place for her”. The girl replies, “But, she is half alive.” Subtle dialogues like these that give this movie a nice touch and set one thinking.

The meanings of the rituals and practices written in the scriptures have been understood as per the convenience of the times and more so as per the convenience of the wealthy people of the times. This is pertinent even now. Just that, this has shifted to politics and politicians make use of religion and manipulate people to fill their pockets. At the end of the day, it’s all about money, honey.

Being the optimist, I hope to see an improvement in the world and more so in the treatment of children around. We, the blogging or say the Inet accessible community, all said and done, is definitely more privileged when compared to millions of others. Isn’t it time, we did something about people around us? The question is part rhetoric too, because going with the milieu it is very easy to follow the crowd.

I think it is time I did something.

To catch an in-depth review of Water, check out Rashmi Bansal’s blog.