Running head: FILM WATER 1 Film Water Name Professor Course Date FILM WATER 2 Water film and analysis Water film presents elements of race, gender, and class. These are the core thematic subjects explored throughout the film. For instance, the film portrays women as being weak and inferior compared to men. Women are presented as dependable people who are nothing without men (Courtney, 2017). On the same token, the film portrays widows as comparatively undervalued and as people who do not measure up to the social scale. In other words, widows are half-human or less of that because they do not have husbands and thus cannot be treated with deserved respect. Widows are also presented as unholy and unclean.in the opening scene, for instance, Kalyani (a widow) touches a married woman and from that instance, the woman rebukes her of being unclean and says that she has to take a bath. This incident shows that widows are regarded as unholy and evil and not valued in Indian society. Women identify so much with their husbands that to be widowed is deemed to be evil. Male-identification is a theme taken to the extreme in the film. The woman is useless and pathetic if not married or widowed. She arguably becomes ethically dead upon her husband’s demise. One idea presented in the movie is literary to cremate a widowed woman together with her deceased husband. A widow is also expected and even forced to marry the brother of her dead husband and live a self-denial lifestyle. In one instance in the film, Chuyia, an innocent child, asks, who houses widowed women? However, hearing such statements, the women rebuke such comment and scandalize her for her remarks saying that 'being a widow is a fate that God should protect us from.' It is utterly surprising that women do not question their discriminating culture, but follow it blindly. It has made them slaves and weak, but they adhere and attach to it firmly. One of the FILM WATER woman (pictured in the film) even openly says that she cannot have dinner in the same table with Kalyani because she is nothing but a pollutant widow. In the movie, women are cognizance that men are superior to them, and hence, they are horrible, and for this reason, they can do nothing but get used to the situation. Although women know that men regard them with the admonition, they are too weak to repel such culture. Additionally, women admire being men. When one woman dies, for instance, another one says that 'I believe God will bring her back as a man.' Water is a film that mirrors the primitive cultural practices in India. It is a backward, retrograding culture that diminishes women, especially widows. Women are detested mostly for economical reason. Noticeably, Shakuntala tells Narayan that their position in the Indian culture is nothing but to serve as men’s concubines. 'It's all about money nothing else,' she says. The film also shows that Indian culture values the caste system. It explores the unbearable lives of the so-called untouchables. Although the film makes considerable references to the ideologies put forward by Gandhi that untouchables should not be mistreated, the caste system is depicted as firmly rooted in the Indian culture. It is also surprising that the marginalized people uphold and support the degrading system. The mistreatment of widows is linked to the caste system – they are deemed as weak. Widows are ranked in the lower stair in the social stratification. Furthermore, a wealthy woman is much appreciated in Indian society than a married one (Joshi, D., & Fawcett, 2016)– money and status is everything in this culture. 3 FILM WATER 4 References Courtney, S. A. (2017). The Storm of Deepa's Water: From Violent Tempest in Varanasi to Glacial Account of Hindu Widowhood. The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 18(1), 115-121. Joshi, D., & Fawcett, B. (2016). Water, Hindu mythology and an unequal social order in India. A History of Water, 3, 119-36.
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