Fire and Water

Fire and Water

Haunting Indian sitar, exotic ethnic setting, complex culture, political unrest, sorrowful old women aching for lollies, cremations by the river next to people bathing in the waters, these are elements of the film Water. Water is one film of a set of stories about Indian culture set in 1938. Another story is Fire. Water aims its barbs at the traditional Indian practice of forsaking widows, rejecting them from decent society, regarding them as tainted and to be bundled away in widows’ hostels. The film makes clear that this attitude is the consequence of a society dominated by religion and men.

The hero of our story is Chuyia a seven year old girl. She is married off to an older man who dies. So, at age seven, she is a widow. Her father takes her to a widows’ home, a run-down stone building with a courtyard and sleeping quarters for the many old hags who live there. Three of these women are of interest to us. They are a parrot loving, marijuana smoking, maam Didi who dictates what goes on, a tender woman Shakun who is like a severe mother to Chuyia, and a beautiful young widow Kalyani who befriends Chuyia.

Chuyia meets a handsome young aristocrat Narayan in the street. He is interested in Ghandi’s message of resistance to the British rule. Chuyia introduces beautiful Kalyani to him. He is transfixed, he pursues her, they fall in love, and plan to marry against his family and the widows’ wishes.

But unbeknown to handsome Narayan, the old maam Didi organises for beautiful Kalyani to act as a whore to wealthy aristocrats to gain revenue to feed the widows. Handsome Narayan discovers that beautiful Kalyani has been rented out to sleep with his father. Word gets back to Kalyani that Narayan has found out what she has been forced to do. She knows that Narayan will cancel the marriage and dump her. She is heartbroken and full of despair at her dreadful life, not married to the man she loves and forced to being a whore, she drowns herself in the Ganges. Little does she know that as she does this Narayan has thought through the situation and angrily rejects the traditional culture including that which surrounding widows. He goes in search of Kalyani, but of course by now she is dead.

Having lost the breadwinner for the hostel, the fat maam Didi sends little Chuyia off to play with a rich man. Shakun races to rescue her, but too late. Poor little Chuyia returns very ill after her ordeal with the man.

Handsome Narayan, unaware of this, in his sorrow, tells Shakun, Chuyia’s surrogate mother, that Ghandi’s entourage will come to town by train and stop in the station to allow Ghandi to give a speech. Shakun cuddling the little girl, takes Chuyia to the station along with the crowd. She is desperate and scurries alongside the departing train begging someone to rescue Chuyia and take her along with Ghandi for a new life. Shakun watches the train begin to leave. No-one takes pity on her. Fortunately Narayan appears at a doorway of the train and immediately grabs little Chuyia and takes her.

Shakun left on an empty station, turns to look back to the widows’ hostel. She stops. Will she too, move on to find a new life for herself?

This is a moving glimpse into a sad world but the story is lifted by a ray of sunshine at the end, perhaps representing a new beginning for India after years of colonisation.

Postscript – at the time of making the film an estimated 30 million widows suffered, shunted off to these widows’ hostels.