Bethany Well

Water is often seen in the film because the women are in Ganges River bathing their sins away trying to liberate themselves from the world. For over 2000 years, in India it was believed, when a woman was widowed, the man was half of the woman’s body. Since her husband is dead, she is also considered half dead. Once a woman became a widow she had no rights, everything that belonged to her would be lost. Either a widow could burn with her husband while he is being cremated, or they would live an ascetic life, an outcast of society, like a ghost. There is one scene when Chuyia runs away and Kalyani tries to catch her. A woman bumps into Kalyani and rebukes her for running, saying “widows can’t run like unmarried girls. I am unclean now and have to wash again.” To touch a widow was like touching a dead person. A widow suffers much, not only because she loses all her possessions, and can only eat one meal a day, but because she also had to completely lose contact with other people. Widows were treated like ghosts or dead woman walking. A defining moment in the film is when Narayan answers Shakuntala’s question on why widows live the way they do. His response was “One less mouth to feed, four less saris, and a free corner in the house. Disguised as religion, it’s just about money.” This is at the heart of the movie and why Mehta Deepa so strongly resolved to make this movie. Much of the reason why widows were cast out of society was more for money and convenience. There would be no property disputes on women owning land and inheriting what was her husband’s, if she is shuffled off to an ashram and sentenced to live her life like a ghost. The worst part of it is that most girls got married before they hit the age 10. Often, it was too much older men, since life expectancy was so short, women were often widowed at a very young age.

Throughout the film Gandhi is gossiped, rumored, and whipsered about. Shakuntala hears that Gandhi thinks widows should be able to remarry. She also hears that he thinks the “Untouchables” are children of God. Though he is barely seen in the movie his influence is a strong undercurrent throughout the film. The movie climaxes when Shakuntala hears that Gandhi is freed from prison and is at the train station. Hoards of people gather to hear him speak about hope for the oppressed and hurting. I couldn’t help but think Gandhi had similar appeal as Jesus did. These people were thirsty for truth and I’ll add, God. Gandhi said in the film his famous line “I used to think God is truth but now I think truth is God.” This brings Shakuntala freedom in a sense because “god” was what chained her down and truth was kept from her. Now she was hearing truth for the first time. The movie culminates in truth for Shakuntaka and hope for Chuyia.

It made me realize all the more the brokenness in the world, a world where widows were oppressed and had no hope for a better life. It also made me remember that this is not too different from the world that Jesus entered. He spoke unconventional unorthodox and unfettered truth. Gandhi separated truth and God, whereas Jesus was God and truth in one. Throughout the countless scenes, when they are at the Ganges River washing away sins and having to return to repeat the process, made me think of Jesus and how he washed our sins once and for all. One of the main reasons I couldn’t help but think about God was because many of these practices still exist today in India. Which is why Mehta so wanted to make this movie, not only to tell a tale of the past but to change the present. You can see their longing for God and truth back then and if things haven’t changed, still long for him now.

Written by: kdoh on April 15, 2008.