Quote:
"[Deepa] Mehta's films, arguably, have enlarged the discursive boundaries of what can be represented in Indian cinema. Just as Fire engaged openly with lesbian sexuality, Water has permitted the oppressions and disempowerment that real women experience daily—real women, rather than the chaste wife or celibate widow ideals beloved of Hindu ideologues—to emerge onto the screen."
-- Shohini Chaudhuri

Source:
Chaudhuri, Shohini. "Snake Charmers and Child Brides: Deepa Mehta's Water, 'Exotic' Representation, and the Cross-Cultural Spectatorship of South Asian Migrant Cinema." South Asian Popular Culture 7, no. 1 (April 2009). (p. 19)