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Create Lesson Plans Based on Movies and Film
Writer/Director Deepa Mehta's
WATER
SUBJECTS --- World/India; Religions/Hinduism; Literature/
Literary Devices: character development, symbols,
subplot, foils and irony;
SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING --- Human Rights; Suicide;
Breaking Out;
MORAL-ETHICAL EMPHASIS --- Respect; Caring; Fairness.
Age: 13+; MPAA Rating: PG-13 for mature thematic material involving sexual situations, and for brief drug use; Drama; 2005; 117 minutes; In Hindi with English subtitles.
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Writer/Director Deepa Mehta's Water is a touching love story set in India in 1938. It begins with Chuyia, an 8 year old child bride being told that her husband has died. She is now a widow. Widows in traditional Indian society were not allowed to work or to remarry. (Very few Indian widows remarry to this day.) With no son to take care of her, Chuyia is sent to a widows' ashram to live out a monastic life of constant prayer for her sins which, under Hindu tradition, contributed to the death of her husband. At the ahsram she meets a beautiful young widow, Kalyani. But all is not what it seems. Kalyani (like many young widows) has been forced into prostitution to help pay the bills of the ashram ... and then Kalyani meets Narayan, a handsome young follower of Gandhi who taught that widows should be allowed to remarry.
Subjects that can be introduced with Water include: India in the 20th century; the plight of widows in underdeveloped countries, particularly in India and Africa; Mahatma Gandhi and his role in Indian and world history; how patriarchal traditions hijack and pervert religions; and what happens when one group of people in a culture are powerless. The movie is rich in symbolism and other literary devices.
Water, when properly introduced, opens new worlds to modern day students and they love it. Several students in classes to whom we've shown this film told us that it was the best movie they've ever seen.
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- Benefits
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- Discussion Questions
- Links to Internet
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To give you a sense of how this film and its Learning Guide can help teachers and parents supplement curriculum focusing on India and the treatment of widows, we have set out below some of the discussion questions that you will find in the Guide to Writer/Director Deepa Mehta's Water.
Shakuntala asks, "What happens when our conscience conflicts with our faith?" What does her faith say? What does her conscience say? How does she answer that question? Then compare how Gandhi would react to this question.
This film describes a serious problem in traditional Indian society. Has the U.S. had any similar problems in the past? Have these problems been fully corrected?
The Learning Guide to the film Water contains sections on Benefits of the Movie, Possible Problems, Helpful Background, Discussion Questions, Links to the Internet, and Bridges to Reading. The Discussion Questions are divided into three categories: Subject Matter, Social-Emotional Learning, and Moral-Ethical Emphasis.
A subscription to TeachWithMovies.com will give you access to Learning Guides for 285 films and seven Movie Lesson Plans. Click here to subscribe and create a great lesson plan from Writer/Director Deepa Mehta's Water for teaching children about India and the plight of widows in many developing countries.
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