“In grief we are all sisters here,” says Ma (Manorama) – matriarch of the holy temple where widows are hidden from society – to newly widowed seven-year-old Chuyia (Sarala). Cleaved from home, Chuyia arrives as whispers of a man named Gandhi stir on the wind. Deepa Mehta’s third elemental pondering after Fire and Earth, Water (also available in English language form on this two-discer) rarely delves beneath the surface of its critical issues. Visually rapturous but emotionally distant, its struggle of religion, law and conscience begs for more depth.
