“Water” is a sad, beautiful film, a heart-rending picture so controversial it couldn’t be shot in India, where it takes place.

A tragic romance set during Mahatma Gandhi’s rise to power, “Water” is a haunting contemporary social commentary as well. Hence the protests and attacks by Hindu fundamentalists that shut down the film’s first production in 2000 that forced writer/director Deepa Mehta to move the filming to Sri Lanka, where it was shot in secrecy last year.

Set in colonial India in 1938, when child marriage was still prevalent, Mehta’s movie is the story of 8-year-old Chuyia (newcomer Sarala), who, despite the fact she couldn’t remember her arranged marriage to a man in his 50s is forced to live in a house of widows after he died, condemned to stay there for the rest of her life.

The house is run by the obese Madhumati (Manorama), a spiteful woman who eats well while the other women in the compound survive on rice, smokes marijuana provided by eunuch pimp Gulabi (Raghuvir Yadav), whom she uses to prostitute young, beautiful widow Kalyani (Lisa Ray), the only woman in the compound whose hair is not closely shorn to reflect her widowhood.

Kalyani befriends little Chuyia, letting her play with her puppy, Kaalu, and taking her to the nearby Ganges River to wash, pray and play. When Kaalu gets loose during an outing, Chuyia chases him through the streets, where the pup is captured by handsome newly minted lawyer Narayan (John Abraham).

Returning the little girl and the dog, Narayan meets Kalyani and is instantly smitten with the pretty, sweet woman dressed in a widow’s white sari. A follower of Gandhi, Narayan is more than willing to defy the conservative Hindu teachings that widows must either throw themselves on the funeral pyre of their husband, live forever in a widow’s compound or, if the family permits, marry the husband’s younger brother.

With Chuyia as messenger, Narayan contacts Kalyani and the pair meet, sealing a forbidden love that sends shock waves through the widows’ compound, his family, and, by extension, Indian society.

The final major player in “Water” is Shakuntala (Seema Biswas), the deeply religious widow who becomes Chuyia’s mother figure. Troubled by her conscience, it is Shakuntala who has to examine the conflict between religious teaching and the horrible life to which widows are condemned.

Powerfully written by Mehta, “Water” is stunningly acted by its ensemble cast, who make her points through the characters and their lives rather than by polemics. The beautiful Ray commands attention — you’ll see her soon popping up in American-made films. But the rest of the cast is equally as good, with Biswas giving the film its spiritual anchor, Manorama becoming a classic villain and Abraham a sensitive, leading man.

Shot by Giles Nuttgens, who worked on the last three “Star Wars” movies and other Indian films, such as “Bandit Queen,” “Water” captures the widows’ surroundings with a graceful beauty that strikingly contrasts with the horrible lives the women are forced to leave.

So why would a historical, fictional film be so controversial that it would cause riots and be forced to be shot in another country?

A slide that comes on screen at the end of “Water” provides that explanation. There are more than 34 million widows in India today, many of whom are forced to live under similar conditions to the women depicted in the film, living out their lives as prescribed by a 2,000-year-old religious text.

That oppression, which is as much economic as religious, is generally hidden, or at least not talked about. So in bringing it to the surface, Mehta stirred up Hindu fundamentalists, who, without having read the script, threw her sets in the Ganges, burned her in effigy and marched in the streets of Varanasi, where the movie tried to film in 2000.

That “Water” was completed at all is a testimony to the determination of its director and her cast and crew. That it is such a powerful film is a tribute to her talent and insight and to the harrowing story that she chose to tell and bring to light for all the world to see.

Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.

Water - 4 stars

Director: Deepa Mehta

Stars: Lisa Ray, John Abraham, Sarala, Seema Biswas

Rated: PG-13 (for mature thematic material involving sexual situations, and for brief drug use). In Hindi with subtitles.

Running Time: 117 minutes

Now Showing: Ross

The Reel Story: This powerful, sadly beautiful Indian film tells the story of an 8-year-old widow forced to live the rest of her life in a widows’ compound according to Hindu beliefs.