What are your thoughts around it? Do you think the movie is worth it?
Discuss!
Full Version: Water nominated for Oscar
canada, not india. 
lol j/k. i haven't seen the film though.
lol j/k. i haven't seen the film though.
I wanted to watch this movie with my friend, but still wasn't able to. 
QUOTE(ham_let @ Jan 24 2007, 07:34 PM) 
canada, not india.
lol j/k. i haven't seen the film though.
No one cares about Canda
and John Abraham is Indian so
QUOTE(YoungOne @ Jan 24 2007, 02:35 PM)
No one cares about Canda
says the girl from norwegia. *scoffs*
QUOTE(pun187 @ Jan 24 2007, 07:35 PM)
I wanted to watch this movie with my friend, but still wasn't able to.
Aww it's a good movie, you should watch. I personally liked it very much.
QUOTE(ham_let @ Jan 24 2007, 07:37 PM)
says the girl from norwegia. *scoffs*
That's different. You guys try but don't get recognition, while we don't even try
thank god its water coz deepa mehta is very un-bollywood as u can get. she at least tackles controversial suibjects & avoids all the fluff of running around trees in the swiss alps.
QUOTE(YoungOne @ Jan 24 2007, 01:44 PM)
Aww it's a good movie, you should watch. I personally liked it very much.
That's different. You guys try but don't get recognition, while we don't even try
dont wrry! we canadians are all over hollywood, u juz dont know it! we look, speak and act like americans. LOL
ive seen parts of the movie.
In other news, an angry mob hired by Bal Thackery assasinated Deepa Mehta on the red carpet.......
Class film imo and deserves it's nomination. Tackles subjects relavent to the past and modern day, a quite a few interesting areas which can be discussed, both in it's content and meaning.
Finally, an Indian movie (with Canadian backing mind) that isn't about dancing, music, glamour and pointless romance with Amitabh Bachan acting as the hero's "cool" and "hip" funny dad, in a story where emotionally the characters are weak and lack depth, the setting is some ridiculous and unrealistic location, candid white dancers appearing to add an extra attractive quality with dancing scenes around random parts of London for no reason and finally, a plot with as many holes as a sieve that has no concept of originality. Oh, and chuck Rani Mukherjee into the mix as some sort of love interest.
Finally, an Indian movie (with Canadian backing mind) that isn't about dancing, music, glamour and pointless romance with Amitabh Bachan acting as the hero's "cool" and "hip" funny dad, in a story where emotionally the characters are weak and lack depth, the setting is some ridiculous and unrealistic location, candid white dancers appearing to add an extra attractive quality with dancing scenes around random parts of London for no reason and finally, a plot with as many holes as a sieve that has no concept of originality. Oh, and chuck Rani Mukherjee into the mix as some sort of love interest.
I like Fire and Earth, but Water was just awful. This Deepa Mehta just seems like some sort of sellout after making it. and wtf is with having Lisa Ray in there, chick is like half Polish or something.
QUOTE(jiggyiggy @ Jan 25 2007, 04:10 AM)
I like Fire and Earth, but Water was just awful. This Deepa Mehta just seems like some sort of sellout after making it. and wtf is with having Lisa Ray in there, chick is like half Polish or something.
What was wrong with Water and how does Deepa Mehta seem like a sellout because of it?
Also, Lisa Ray may be half Polish but I don't see why she can't act in the film, plus she's really beautiful.
water was such a sad movie. so was earth. i haven't seen fire but im guessing its also sad
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I dunno Water just makes India look like to be the worst possible society on Earth.
QUOTE(jiggyiggy @ Jan 25 2007, 05:01 PM)
I dunno Water just makes India look like to be the worst possible society on Earth.
hmm, I disagree. I think it focused on some pretty real issues that occur in India. However, I don't think it gave Indians a bad image at all, because amongst the bad, there were good (John Abrahams character for example).
QUOTE(jiggyiggy @ Jan 26 2007, 04:01 AM)
I dunno Water just makes India look like to be the worst possible society on Earth.
it was based in like the olden days a lot of society's were as bad in that time
im guessing
QUOTE(-=(-_-)=- HI-hit @ Jan 25 2007, 10:34 PM)
it was based in like the olden days a lot of society's were as bad in that time
im guessing
The ending of the movie stated that many widows still face the same circumstances on the screen.
They also used the Manu Smriti to show quotes on the screen, which shouldn't be used as a holy book.
Most naive people will assume that that's what Hinduism is all about.
Jan. 25, 2007, 1:05PM
India to screen Oscar nominee 7 years after protests
MUMBAI, India — Oscar-nominated Canadian movie Water will be shown in India this spring, seven years after angry Hindu nationalists stormed the sets, forcing its Indian-born director to stop filming.
This time, promoters say, they don't foresee any trouble.
Distributor Sanjay Bhutiani said Water will open across the country in March.
Protests by Hindu nationalists, who alleged the film was anti-Hindu, forced Canadian-based director Deepa Mehta to suspend shooting in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi in 2000. She resumed filming in Sri Lanka four years later.
"The film is not negative and it is based in the 1930s," said Bhutiani, business director of B.R. Films, which will distribute the movie in India. "There is nothing controversial in the film and I don't see the trouble last time repeating itself."
Water, shot mainly in the Hindi language, centers on a home where widows were sent by their families to live in social exile.
Bhutiani attributed the movie's late release in India to a delay in completing distribution contracts. "We need a month to market the movie and launch the music since music is a big part of any film release in India," he said.
Water is a nominee in the foreign language film category.
The Oscars will be presented Feb. 25 in Los Angeles.
source - http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/4498838.html
Iam glad ''Water'' is going to da Oscars, I think its a good film
I love that NRI's love these kind movies. We ain't po brown folk no mo, we comin on up sandeep.
QUOTE
dont wrry! we canadians are all over hollywood, u juz dont know it! we look, speak and act like americans. LOL
ive seen parts of the movie.
canadians or filipinos?
I wish they would make a movie about the filipino child sex trafficing, but I guess no western studio would fund it. Since it\'s mostly western white paedos who go there. Hopefully there government will have a moral conscience and step in Sad!
QUOTE
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/norther...and/3238033.stm
Far East sex tourists exposed
Irishmen are travelling to the Far East to have sex with children, a BBC Northern Ireland documentary has revealed.
The Spotlight programme examines the Irish connection to the sex tourism trade in the Philippines. Here Stephen Walker reports on his investigation into this new brand of \"tourism\".
I am introduced to Glo. Through an interpreter she is told who I am.
She seems nervous and appears hesitant when we talk about recording an interview. Her reluctance is understandable.
In the teenager\'s experience, all foreign men want from her is sex. Soon she relaxes and begins to tell me her life story.
Her account is shocking.
When she was 13, she was sexually abused by a relative.
She then left home to escape the horror of being repeatedly raped, and found work in a sex club.
She ended up working every night as a prostitute, expected to have sex with tourists from all over the world including Britain and Ireland for £6 a time.
Controlled by a \"mamasang,\" slang for a female pimp, her pay would be reduced if she refused to have sex.
Poverty trap
Caught in the poverty trap, she had become a sex slave, cut off from her friends and family.
Her story is disturbing, but in a country with 100,000 child prostitutes, it is all too common.
Glo worked in the bars of Angeles City.
It is a grim place, packed with karaoke bars and pick-up joints, where foreign visitors come looking for one thing.
Richard Agnew denies any involvement in the sex industry
Nicknamed \"Sin City,\" it is the centre of the Philippines sex industry and a magnet for travellers known as \"whorists\", who want to have sex with young girls.
It is a world that Glo has now left behind.
With the help of Dun Laoghaire-born priest Father Shay Cullen, she has managed to escape from the clutches of the pimp who controlled her.
Fr Cullen has been exposing paedophiles in the Philippines for the past 30 years.
He helped Glo leave the sex club and now provides a refuge for her, along with 30 other former child prostitutes.
What has surprised Fr Cullen in recent months is the ages of the girls he is now rescuing.
\"Once we would have found 15 and 16-year-olds. Now we are discovering 13-year-olds, and more and more bar owners, particularly Britons and Irish, who are getting involved,\" he said.
Although prostitution is illegal in Angeles, it seems to be tolerated
Last month, Spotlight producer Brendan McCourt and I travelled to the heart of the Philippines sex industry to investigate the Irish connection.
A quick walk around the streets of Angeles highlights the growing involvement of British and Irish investors.
Many bars have Irish names, and are patronised daily by visiting westerners.
Although prostitution is illegal in Angeles, it seems to be tolerated.
Night and day, western men can be seen with young girls - some look as young as 11 or 12.
Deals are done openly in the streets, and children are hired out for a few pounds.
The clubs in Angeles are mainly clustered together in one long street.
It is a regular destination for Fr Cullen, who often goes undercover to expose pimps and sex tourists.
Equipped with a hidden camera, in one bar he captured one sex tourist boasting that it is the \"best place in the world to pick up 15-year-olds\".
Outside another club, he befriended an Irishman and secretly recorded his views.
The sex tourist told him that Angeles has lots to offer and wondered why his new found friends were going home alone.
Deportation case
Angeles\' best known Irish resident is now at the centre of a deportation case.
Richard Agnew, from Larne, is a former RUC Constable who has spent the last ten years in the Philippines.
Three months ago, he was arrested and charged with employing child prostitutes in a series of bars.
The former policeman denies the charges.
He insists that he is simply working as a consultant in some of the bars, and rejects any suggestion that he is involved in prostitution.
Despite his denials, Mr Agnew\'s record in the Philippines is worthy of investigation.
Tuesday\'s edition of Spotlight examines his claims that he is not involved in the sex industry.
We produce documentary evidence that links him to a series of bars, and we hear from child prostitutes who say he is involved in the running of clubs.
We met Angie, who began working as a prostitute when she was 13.
She says Mr Agnew is involved in sex clubs and reveals on the programme that he is known in Angeles as the \"Daddy\" - a term used to describe a sex club\'s owner.
Angie\'s story, like that of Glo\'s, is repeated right across the Philippines.
It is a story of young girls desperate to escape from poverty who are forced to sell their bodies.
They are now safe and well, living in a care centre run by Fr Cullen.
The girls believe they have had a lucky escape, and are planning careers in teaching and nursing.
A world away from the streets of Angeles, where the sex tourist is king.
Some of the names have been changed to protect identities.
I don't understand why Nandita Das wasn't chosen for the main role as she had been in Earth and Fire. Lisa Ray was okay, but Nandita Das with her 'the-girl-from-next-door' look would've been a much more appropriate choice to play the lead character in such a film.
I'd give the movie 3 stars overall, but it was nowhere as captivating and emotionally moving as Earth and Fire.
I'd give the movie 3 stars overall, but it was nowhere as captivating and emotionally moving as Earth and Fire.
I am sad that a beautiful movie like "Rang De Basanti" couldn't make it and a movie like "water" which is full of contradictions and lies made it to the nominations. Btw I have seen both the movies. Deepa Mehta made this movie for western viewers only, who have neglegible knowledge about contemporary indian society. The oscars members couldn't understand "Rang De basanti" because they have no knowledge of the Indian history but "water" got the laurels because they have this stereotypical image of India being exotic and having various kinds of evils in society. "Water" is considered as being a high grade art film which is totally absurd. No wonder the movie set was vandalised and there was so much opposition inside Varanasi and else where in India. People in India were very surprised when they got the news that "Water" has been nominated and "Rang De Basanti" couldn't make it.
heh, that's my point, Mehta clearly didn't have an Indian audience in mind. I liked Fire and Earth, and I think banning them was stupid, but the whole point of Water was basically "look how awful India is." The whole thing shoulda been shot in English to save ppl the trouble of reading subtitles.
I still disagree with both of your standpoints. While watching the film I never thought of it as an anti-India/hindu film at all, and for me there were aspects of it that contradicted the whole anti-Indian concept.
However, I agree that Rang De Basanti was a superb film, one which I wouldn't have been at all disappointed at seeing at the oscars. However, I feel that should Water be viewed as a anti-Indian/Hindu film, then Rang De Basanti can also be seen as a pro-India film (in a patriotic/jingoistic view) due to the way that the scenes of past events display the Indian "victories" over the English. Of course, there are elements contradicting this idea as it highlights the corruption in the modern Indian government, but essentially I feel that it's the same case with Water, which though it shows some harshly negative aspects of Indian culture/society, it doesn't actually hide positives, such as the positive effects of Gandhi, the revolutionary movements gathering pace in India and the hope of future generations of Indians removing the negative aspects of the culture from society as they mature.
Almost forgot to say. I believe the audience for this movie would be Indians and non-Indians alike. I believe it shows cultural traditions that only Indians will actually understand, but the Canadian backing seems to have a pretty clear influence of giving it a more International presence.
However, I agree that Rang De Basanti was a superb film, one which I wouldn't have been at all disappointed at seeing at the oscars. However, I feel that should Water be viewed as a anti-Indian/Hindu film, then Rang De Basanti can also be seen as a pro-India film (in a patriotic/jingoistic view) due to the way that the scenes of past events display the Indian "victories" over the English. Of course, there are elements contradicting this idea as it highlights the corruption in the modern Indian government, but essentially I feel that it's the same case with Water, which though it shows some harshly negative aspects of Indian culture/society, it doesn't actually hide positives, such as the positive effects of Gandhi, the revolutionary movements gathering pace in India and the hope of future generations of Indians removing the negative aspects of the culture from society as they mature.
Almost forgot to say. I believe the audience for this movie would be Indians and non-Indians alike. I believe it shows cultural traditions that only Indians will actually understand, but the Canadian backing seems to have a pretty clear influence of giving it a more International presence.
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