Water the Movie for Oscar

WATER - The movie, an Oscar Contender

It is one of the best made movies I have seen in a long time -of the caliber of Satyajit Roy or a Sethyu film. I am willing to bet - it will make the best foreign film of the year in Oscars. It ought to win for exceptional performance by Lisa Ray, t

May 21 2006 8:21PM comments rss:

SPECIAL NOTE ADDED - FOR WATER - The Movie

i have received quite a lot of hate-mail from the readers on this forum about 15 - I expect another 185 per the confiugaration. The hate mailers did not even read the piece, all they saw was WATER and started shooting the hate mail. I introduce and opened the movie to Dallas audience and urged them prior to opening of the show, not to view Hinduism in bad light. And asked them to hold the temptations to judge. Which was appreciated by quite a many. I stayed to answer any questions any one might have, until all the people had left. If not, there was a possibility of a few to mis-understand it. A Muslim defending Hinduism? I did it because it was the right thing to do. Would you have defended Islam if some one was thrashing it? That's where one's spirituality and integrity has a role to play. Check out the website

www.Foundationforpluralism.com . There is no Hindu or Muslim in the world from a moral point of view, it is good people and bad people. There are roughly 1/10th of 1% of Muslims and same percent of Hindus, Christians and Jews who are fanatics and extremists. The rest of us 99.90% of all of us are good people. If Sulekha has 200,000 Members, I will assure you, the number will figure out to be 200


Don't miss this movie. It is one of the best made movies from just about every angle you can imagine. And I do hope, you would stand up when you see injustice done to any one, and particularly dependent women.


WATER - THE MOVIE.

Mike Ghouse

I had the distinct honor of welcoming the audience and introducing the movie WATER at the pre-screening event at Dallas Museum of Arts.

My comments included the need for societies to debate and learn. The movie is the most popular medium to communicate the idea of questioning old practices. Of the 400+ people that were invited, we had about 15 Indians, a few Pakistanis, a few Sri Lankans and Bangladeshis. Rest all were the main stream folks from the Caucasian and African American communities. The house was full, apparently every one was waiting for it.

"As an Indian, I am proud of our heritage - a multi-faith, multi-cultural, multi-regional and multi-linguistic society, where we have come to accept and respect every which way people have lived their lives. For over 5000 years, India has been a beacon of pluralism - it has embraced Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Baha’i and Zoroastrianism to include in the array of the indigenous religions; Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism.""Through the years we have expressed the highest degree of maturity on handling extreme situations; the more divergent opinions we hear, the larger our heart grows, the bigger our embrace would be and we can cushion more differences. Let’s continue to honor the concept that there is always another side to the story, as finding the truth is our own responsibility."

I asked the audience to hold judgement thru the end of the movie, as it is one of the controversial movies of the year. " We have to learn to separate culture and religion. The characters in the movie are Hindus. What you see on the screen is Culture embedded in Religion. Although you may see the quotations from the Manu scripture, it is not the faith itself barring the practices which are cultural. What you see on the screen is not Hinduism, it is the culture. Hindu faith is beautiful like every one of the established faiths of the world. What you see is the culture of insecure men through out the world that has made men cruel to women. All cultures have an element that is not acceptable to the just minded individuals. In India you can actually see how people lived some 000's of years ago and also see the most updated comforts of life."

"The movie was shot in Sri Lanka as the movie sets were vandalized and the producer was threatened. You will see the titles with John Abraham as one of the actors, you might be surprised to hear that name, you shouldn't be. Christianity was in India at least 200 years before it was in Europe. Be conscious of the distinction in your mind while watching the movie about Religion and Culture.

I will be available after the show to address any questions you may have. I am Mike Ghouse, representing the Foundation for Pluralism. Now the movie.

**** End ***

It is one of the best made movies I have seen in a long time -of the caliber of Satyajit Roy or a Sethyu film. I am willing to bet - it will make the best foreign film of the year in Oscars. It ought to win for exceptional performance by Lisa Ray, the little girl, and the friend girl. John Abraham has delivered superb acting. The film rolls with the speed of our emotions, no rushing, it alllows you to feel the full sentiments. A few tears will roll down your cheeks. At one time, Najma wanted to walk out when the parents drop the 7 years old widow girl at the Ashram and the other time, I did not have the capacity to watch the little girl walk into the bedroom of this rich zamindar... thanks to Deepa, she did not show the graphics instead the girl was shown in the boat crying. The music really connects your senses with the sounds a few beautiful songs by AR Rahman and some of the music on ghats and some under the banyan tree is hauntigly melodius. Waheeda Rehman has a brief role in it. It does not evoke any negative feelings towards Hinduism, it sure does make you want to stand up for justice against the system, the culture. At least that is what I heard from the people after the show. By the way, the good clean humor makes the movie short.

Don't miss this movie. It is one of the best made movies from just about every angle you can imagine. And I do hope, you would stand up when you see injustice done to any one, and particularly dependent women. In Dallas area it is being shown at Angelica Theater.

Mike Ghouse
www.Mikeghouse.net
www.Foundationforpluralism.com
www.Dallasdesicalendar.com