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.