The Politics of Melodrama in Deepa Mehta's Water

Hopgood points out that 'Water represents the maturation of Mehta as a director capable of marrying political filmmaking with melodrama in order to harness the power of emotional engagement for consciousness-raising.' [...] 'Mehta harnesses the power of pathos – defined by Linda Williams as a complex dialectic of emotion and thought – in an unequivocal demonstration of melodrama's ability to move us, often to tears.'