Quote:
"[Deepa] Mehta's trilogy [Fire, Earth, and Water] binds the elemental with the feminine and probes the way women are preyed upon and shackled by social institutions, pulverized and bartered by patriarchy. The trilogy represents in its totality a powerful and significant cultural challenge to the dominating masculine values and practices of oppression, subjugation and exploitation of women. Since Mehta happens to be a woman director, her courage in the face of intimidation by the largely patriarchal forces must be acknowledged as the immensely relevant preface to her film Water."
-- Tutun Mukherjee

Source:
Mukherjee, Tutun. "Deepa Mehta's Film Water: The Power of the Dialectical Image." Canadian Journal of Film Studies / Revue canadienne d'études cinématographiques 17, no. 2 (Autumn 2008). (p. 36)