Water , is a 2005 Indo-Canadian film written and directed by
Deepa Mehta, with screenplay by
Anurag Kashyap. It is set in 1938 and explores the lives of
widows at an
ashram in
Varanasi, India. The film is also the third and final instalment of Mehta's
Elements trilogy. It was preceded by
Fire (1996) and
Earth (1998). Author
Bapsi Sidhwa wrote the 2006 novel based upon the film,
Water: A Novel, published by Milkweed Press. Sidhwa's earlier novel,
Cracking India was the basis for
Earth, the second film in the trilogy.
Water is a dark introspect into the tales of rural Indian widows in the 1940s and covers controversial subjects such as misogyny and ostracism. The film premiered at the 2005
Toronto International Film Festival, where it was honoured with the Opening Night Gala, and was released across Canada in November of that year. It was first released in India on 9 March 2007.