Here we're confronted with an unusually stupid social practice...the sequestration of "widows" from society for life after the death of their husbands even if they're only seven years old and don't remember ever having met him. It's not hard conjuring up a scenario which exposes the unfairness of this barbarism done in the name of religion, and so they have. In this film we even learn that the young, attractive women are pimped out sotto voce so the community can get enough money to survive. Good idea.
Mehta incorporated a conventional love story into this screenplay which , to me was like throwing a silken horse blanket over a scabrous, broken nag and hoping that'll make it beautiful. It didn't.
The film was great looking, rich with color and incessant, imaginative water imagery but no filmic technique, no matter how inspired, could wash the underlying premise from my mind.
4
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