The Thousand Year Peace: Chapter Six: The Vision of Deepa Mehta
By Michael Moriarty
web posted November 30, 2015
It is an embarrassing confession but… I have only now, this very day, been introduced to the work of Deepa Mehta.
Her film, Water.
Well… her vision of film… it is first and foremost about light.
This Master of Light examines her Trilogy of Fire, Water and Earth… invades it with light.
More insubstantial and far more mysterious than any of those three, customary elements, light guides the genius of Deepa Mehta.
Deepa Mehta
The three films, for myself at any rate, contain a drama about light, the indisputable masterpiece of which is the last of the trilogy to be made: Water.
Perhaps it takes more than half a century for a stubborn man like myself to open my eyes to light.
To see… and hear… the music of light… in a way that perhaps only a woman like Deepa Mehta can know.
The history of Mehta's trilogy begins in 1996 with Fire and culminates in 2005 with Water.
The story lines carry us backward instead of forward.
The first film, Fire, is set in modern day India and deals with the highly controversial subject, in India particularly, of lesbianism.
Moving backward in time, the next film, Earth, examines the nightmare of Indian independence in which the Hindu, Sikh and Muslim populations descend into war with one another.
Finally, Water, the last and , for me, the most effective film of the trilogy, set even further back in East Indian history, to 1938.
Why most effective?
The film that sensitizes me… and, I expect, also an audience, one that is, at last, like myself, more than ready to be taught a lesson about the bottomless mystery of light.
Following that distinctive virtue in her films, her mastery of light, are the two other, obligatory talents: compelling scripts and perfect casting.
All three necessities for exceptional story-telling can be found in the films of Deepa Mehta. 
Michael Moriarty is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor who starred in the landmark television series Law and Order from 1990 to 1994. His recent film and TV credits include The Yellow Wallpaper, 12 Hours to Live, Santa Baby and Deadly Skies. Contact Michael at rainbowfamily2008@yahoo.com. He can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/@MGMoriarty.