Water Deepa Mehta Essay

INTRODUCTION

Literature is a Latin word which means “writing”. Literature has been commonly used since the eighteen century, equivalently with the French belles lettres (“fine letters”), to designate fictional and imaginative writings- poetry, prose, fiction, and drama. In an expanded use, it designates also any other writings (including philosophy, history, and even scientific works addressed to general audience) that are especially distinguished in form, expression, and emotional power. (Abrams, 199)
Modern critical movements, aiming to correct what are seen as historical injustices, stress the strong but covert role played by gender, race, and class in establishing what has, in various eras, been accounted as literature, or in forming the ostensibly timeless criteria of great and canonical literature. Literature is an artistic tool in the hands of writers to change the societal views. It is not only seen as an individual perspective but also as societal perspective including all the factors of the society. Literature has always been used by the writers as an instrument

Both are equally renowned women of our society who have shown a perfect artistic collaboration. My dissertation shows the collaborative work of Bapsi Sidhwa and Deepa Mehta where the novel compliments the film. Water by Deepa Mehta has always been a controversial film in India but it was appreciated by many viewers. Both the novel and movie are based upon similar themes and situations except some variations in the paragraphs, dialogues and cinematic effects.
Throughout Water, the cruelties of Hindu’s against widows are exposed. The exploitation of women and forced prostitution by rich Brahmins reveals the reality of the upper class. Water depicts the miserable condition of widowhood and the condition of the Indian society in the 1930’s when the traditions of colonial India were threatened by the modern ideas of Mahatma