IF YOU’re in toronto on september 8 WATER

Code named River Moon to avoid hostility from religious extremists, Deepa Mehta’s much delayed Water is the first ever non-English/Fren...

Code named River Moon to avoid hostility from religious extremists, Deepa Mehta’s much delayed Water is the first ever non-English/French film to open this month’s Toronto International Film Festival.

Shot in Sri Lanka, with a new cast (Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das were to essay key roles) and setting (changed from Varanasi to the Bihar-Bengal border), Water is the finale in Mehta’s trilogy, following Fire (1996) and Earth 1947 (1998), both of which premiered at the Festival.

Set in pre-Independent India, the film portrays how the fiesty presence of an eight-year-old widow, Chuyia, affects the lives of other residents at the widows’ ashram, where she is sent to live out her days. In particular, 20-year-old Kalyani (Lisa Ray) and 35-year-old Shakuntala (Seema Biswas).

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Encouraged by Chuyia, Kalyani breaks tradition and falls for a young Gandhian (John Abraham), forcing the widows there to question their future and faith.

Sept 8 to 17, 30th Toronto film festival, Roy Thomson Hall http://www.e.bell.ca/film fest