Cast
Seema Biswas 
Lisa Ray 
John Abraham Sarala Kariyawasam
Credits
Written by: 
Deepa Mehta
Plot
In 1938 India, eight-year-old Chuyia is widowed and sent to an ashram in Varanasi, where widows are expected to live out their lives in poverty and penance. She befriends the other widows, among them the young Kalyani, who is forced into prostitution. Deepa Mehta's 2005 film, the final part of her elements trilogy, was controversial in India and was Canada's submission to the Oscars.
Sinekatalog’s take
Deepa Mehta's drama of widows in a Varanasi ashram in 1938 is beautiful and painful. Seema Biswas is superb, and the film is a moving, controversial indictment of ritual cruelty and social injustice.Sinekatalog’s own editorial review – not a user or critic quote.
Ratings
IMDb: 7.7 / 10 (15,876 votes)
IMDb rating and vote count from the IMDb ratings dataset (October 2026). Scores change over time.
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