Water: Cultural/Spiritual Perspective

Throughout the film of Water, many different spiritual influences were found. The first being the spiritual importance of the physical object of water that was obtained from the Ganga river. This river is considered the most sacred river in the Hindu religion. There was a point in the film where one of the widowed ladies stated that she would "pull her tongue out and throw it in the river", this was very symbolic of the cleansing importance that the river holds. I took this phrase as meaning that they would put her tongue in the river in order to cleanse her of her sins and regain the "good" in her. The next example was when "Auntie" was dying and it was imperative to get "Holy Water" from the river to ensure she would go to the proper place after dying. The next spiritual influence that is found in the film is the reenactment of the story of Krishna and Radna which encompasses the plot of the movie. This love story was considered an entirely spiritual connection that occurred in the past of the Hindu culture. The main characters in the film depicted these two important spiritual figures.