Trailer for Water

A few years ago I saw and fell in love with Deepa Mehta’s movie Water. She tells the most beautiful, tragic stories that show in a very clear way just how political the personal is. Water is about widows in 1930’s India, how they are cast off from their families after their husbands die, even if they are jut 8 years old, to live hidden away so as not to bring bad luck on respectable married ladies.

Earth Clip

Last night I watched Earth, about the city of Lahore as India gains it’s independence and loses Pakistan. What little I know of India’s history is from the 1800’s Delhi riots. So I never knew what it was that caused Muslims and Hindus, who had lived together for centuries in peace, to suddenly hate each other with a fiery passion.
It is another beautiful, tragic film.

Of course I would be a complete fraud if I didn’t mention that I have a weird adoration for cute Indian boys. And I have dated Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs from the subcontinent (it never works out, they may be the most beautiful boys on the planet, but the boy worship of their cultures makes the cultural divide near impossible to conquer.)But Mehta never fails to put in lots of eye candy in her movies.

Fire Trailer

Next on my list of Mehta films to see is Fire. This movie pissed off people so bad they burnt down theaters. When Water was filming, the location had to be changed at the last minute because protesters burned the set down. It takes some kind of courage for Mehta to keep making these movies. And every ounce of is shows in her films.