Castellani House is commemorating International Women’s Day with a screening of Indian-Canadian filmmaker, Deepa Mehta’s Water.
The public is invited to attend this screening which is planned for tomorrow at 6 pm.
According to a press release the film was short-listed for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at this year’s Academy Awards after it was submitted as the official entry from Canada. The release said the film drew glowing reviews from the international print and broadcast media, including Time magazine, Variety and the Toronto Sun.
Set against the background of Mahatma Gandhi’s rise to prominence in 1938 colonial India, the film explores the fate of Indian women destined to a life of seclusion and poverty on the death of their husbands. It is told through the stories of child bride Chuyia and beautiful, young, widow Kalyani who falls in love with a young follower of Gandhi. The release said during the making of the movie in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh in 2000, fierce protests from political and religious organisations escalated into mass protests and the burning of the film’s sets. Despite attempting to make changes to the script to appease official concerns, local authorities stopped the film on its eventual first day of filming with an order to cease production. Though other states offered Mehta accommodation she eventually restarted production, under a different title, four years later in Sri Lanka.
The duration of the film is one hour, 56 minutes and stars Lisa Ray, Seema Biswas and top Bollywood actor John Abraham.
