Proposal Essay on Myth in World Film Water (2005) vs Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid (1836)

 

        The Indian Bollywood movie Water (2005) and the Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale version of  The Little Mermaid (1836) are similar to each other in several ways. In Water (2005) The lower class widow Kalyani falls in love with Narayan; who is an upper class man in the Indian Caste system. Whereas in the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale version of  The Little Mermaid (1836) the Little Mermaid falls in love with a human Prince. Each also met the man they loved through the medium of water. Kalyani meets Narayan when she gees to the river to get water to bring back to the widows. This is because her dog runs away and she she meets Narayan because he catches the dog. However, in The Little Mermaid (1836), The Little Mermaid meets the human Prince by saving him within the water from drowning in a shipwreck. She happens to do this by chance while she goes to the surface of the sea after turning fifteen. In addition, Kalyani and the Little Mermaid hope for marriage and to escape their current social statuses. However, each of them do not get married. This is due in Water (2005) to Kalyani's prostitution past with Narayan's dad being discovered causing herself to commit suicide by drowning.  This is due in Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid (1836) because the Prince falls in love with another princess and it makes the Little Mermaid turn into sea foam.  In addition each stories feature widows. Although in Water (2005) it is Kalyani while in The Little Mermaid (1836) the father is the widower and not the Little Mermaid. However, Kalyani and the Little Mermaid each have grandmother figures in their lives who make them do an act that changes their lives. For example, in  The Little Mermaid (1836) the Little Mermaid's Grandma tells her to go up to the sea's surface since she's grown up. This is eventually where she meets the human Prince while in Water (2005) While in Water (2005) Madhu Didi prostitutes Kalyani which eventually causes her to realize Narayan is the son of one of her clients as he takes her in his boat to his house to marry her.

Cultural/Spiritual Perspective of Water (2005)

Image: Wikimedia.org

       

      Within the Indian Bollywood movie Water (2005), there are several images of water which are used to convey a cultural and spiritual perspective. However, when I was viewing this movie, there were three different cultural/spiritual perspectives of water which stood out to me the most. These three following images of water were used as a symbolic representation that incorporated each of these two perspectives.
      The first image of water that intrigued me was the droplet of water on the green leaf during the opening scene of the movie. This water image symbolizes a cultural and spiritual rebirth. This is because the year the movie takes place is 1938 when Gandhi is doing his movement in India. It was a time of change. This was due to the social movement of change which challenged the traditional caste system of India for the ways of modern human justice. Therefore, the water on the green leaf also symbolizes the growth of the main child protagonist  Chuyia as she begins her journey into the life of widowhood after the death of her much older husband.
        The second image which I connected to cultural and spiritual perspectives was the water in the river. This was because the water in the river connects Kalyani to her love interest Narayan. This connection serves as a cultural and spiritual perspective because Kalyani and      Narayan are a representation of Radha and Krishna which are two deities  in the Hindu religion. The water is a spiritual way for them to connect with each other due to their different caste systems. Yet it is also a divider of their love because it makes Kalyani realize her and Narayan cannot be together because she was a prostitute his father slept with.
            The final image which had a cultural and spiritual perspective within Water (2005) was the water that was sprinkled from the container by a woman wearing the color of white which signifies mourning and death within Indian culture. This act of sprinkling water was done in front of the Hindu priest who was reading the Hindu Holy Texts. This shows that the water is seen as a spiritual and cultural purifier because it was sprinkled on the floor near the priest by the woman as a sign to show spiritual respect and to also purify herself within the priest's presence.
           Overall, by using the image of water as a cultural/spiritual perspective in the Indian Bollywood movie Water (2005), viewers are able to learn more about how the Indian spiritual and cultural perspectives are. They can then tie them into their own interpretations of the characters by seeing the actions and choices each the characters made within Water (2005).

Interesting Use of Music from Disney's Finding Nemo Egg Scene (2003)

        Within the movie Disney's Finding Nemo (2003) there are several scenes which music is used to express the emotion and create a connection to the character and their surroundings. However, the scene I analyzed that  used an interesting effect of music is in the Finding Nemo egg scene. This is  the first scene of Finding Nemo; where the barracuda attacks Nemos's mom and destroys all the eggs except for Nemo's egg.

      When Marlon and his wife Coral are inside the pink sea anemone flirting with each other the background music that is being played is upbeat and happy. This reflects the happy mood of each of these two characters and their positive relationship with each other. However, when Marlon asks his wife Coral "Where everybody go?" The upbeat and happy background music stops abruptly. This is a signal that the upcoming  mood of the characters is about to change because the barracuda fish is about to attack them.

       As the barracuda fish swims towards the pink sea anemone and attacks Carol who's trying to protect her eggs the background music becomes brash and edgy. This shows that the event is bad and that Coral will not survive with the majority of her eggs. The music also shows the struggle that Marlon is having against the barracuda attack as he is trying to save himself and his future family from it's harm.

     The scene then transitions to Marlon laying on the floor of the pink sea anemone. The music becomes more somber and sad to show he is upset about his wife not surviving the barracuda attack. The music remains the same as Marlon swims to see if his eggs have survived the attack or not.

     However, as Marlon  nears the cave he knows the majority of his eggs have been lost except for one egg; which is Nemo's egg. This discovery  makes the background music sound less somber and more upbeat sounding. Although it is not the same upbeat background music as before, it is played at a tempo that signifies that Marlon still has hope. This is because  one of the eggs survived the attack that killed his wife and the other  remaining eggs. So he has to have hope for Nemo to thrive.