In Deepa Mehta’s 2005 film Water, Chuyia (Sarala Kariyawasam) is an eight year old widow who is forced to live in the temple of widows, which also forces her to become an untouchable. The untouchables are the lowest class of the social structure in India and are labeled untouchables for the rest of their lives. The film takes place in the 1940’s in Varanasi, India, during the rise of the revolutionary teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. Since Chuyia and the other widows are cut off from the rest of society, they did not know who Gandhi was and what he was fighting for. Because of this, the widows still believed in the old traditions that if a woman’s husband dies, she either has to die with him, marry his younger brother, or become an untouchable.
On the very first day that Chuyia is sent to the temple of widows, she meets a young woman named Kalyani (Lisa Ray) who stays in a treehouse in the temple by herself because she is considered to be tainted by the rest of the widows. The other widows believe that it is bad luck to associate with Kalyani because she is the temple’s whore. Even though she is the only reliable source of income for the temple (being a whore), she is considered even lower class within the untouchables.
When Chuyia meets Kalyani for the first time, Kalyan takes her to her treehouse and shows her a black puppy named Kaalu that she has been hiding. Kalyani then says, “dogs aren’t allowed here, they are a bad omen… don’t tell anyone about Kaalu”. Any black animal in India are considered a bad omen, especially black dogs since dogs in general are pests in India. Kaalu being a black dog would have been killed or badly mistreated if it were a stray in the streets of India and that is exactly the same situation that Kalyani is facing. Kaalu, being a dog, is Kalyani’s life as an untouchable and Kaalu’s blackness is Kalyani’s life as a whore. Anything represented as black is considered to be dirty and bad luck and that is exactly what society sees in Kalyani. Both Kalyani and Kaalu have a double disadvantage and she is mostly seen holding Kaalu at the beginning of the film to indicate that Kaalu is the only thing she relates to the most and she will hold onto it and protect it.
I wish I could find footage of how Chuyia and Kalyani meet, but here is the trailer that shows a couple of small clips of Kalyani with Kaalu. (the overall trailer is interesting to watch as well)
