Scorcese nod for Deepa Mehta/ 11 Feb

Martin Scorcese, Steven Spielberg nod for Deepa
Gayatri Jayaraman
[11 Feb, 2007 l 2111 hrs ISTlTIMES NEWS NETWORK]

Deepa Mehta heads home to India after the last leg of her Oscar lobbying in Los Angeles.

Deepa Mehta says she finds the way India has adopted Water — a film that she was not allowed to make in the country — "charming". Ahead of its release in India, the Oscar-nominated director is lucid about where the film stands.

"Water is the Canadian entry to the Oscars, not an Indian one. It's not how I see it or not, it's what it is," she says. "Of course it's a Hindi film set in India, but it's message is universal."

Oscar or not, Water for Deepa has already achieved what it set out to. She's ecstatic the film was screened at the Museum of Tolerance, in LA. "That's what it's about — tolerance," she says. "To me it has made people respond. Whether it's Steven Spielberg or Martin Scorcese, both of whom came up to me after the screening and said they had been waiting to meet me. Martin said 'It reminded me of what real cinema is' — and I can't tell you how that made me feel — it has made that connection."

And those connections, she says, come to her from across the world. "Australians tell me it reminds them of how aboriginals are treated. In the USA I'm told it's how old or black people are treated. Anywhere in the world, the lessons for the marginalised are the same."

Water, apart from completing the trilogy of Earth and Fire, to Deepa is a highly metaphorical film. "Water is an element we can't do without and yet can be highly destructive too. It can be stagnant and it can flow. Ninety per cent of our body is water. And the film takes place on the banks of a river. The rain is a symbol of purification," she explains. The film was also a personal journey of purification for Deepa. "It gave my daughter and me a chance to bond."

Would the film have been different if made the first time round? "Definitely," she says. "The script had not changed over the four years, but I had changed as a person. I became stronger in my vision as a filmmaker."