Water Consciousness and Indian Cinema: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Select Hindi Language Movies

“Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink,” and so wrote the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his unforgettable poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner way back in 1798 (Taylor Coleridge in The rime of the ancient mariner and other poems, 1st edn. William Collins, Glasgow, 2016) [1]. While one cannot be sure if Coleridge was a clairvoyant, the prophetic line could very well turn into a dystopian reality soon if people are not sensitized about the misuse of water. In this regard, the role of popular media in general and cinema in particular is critically important. In a country like India, cinema has the potential to bring about awareness vis-à-vis the conservation and proper utilization of water. While it cannot be said that Indian cinema has been particularly concerned about water, there have been attempts here and there to further the discourse around water and bring about a paradigm shift in people’s everyday aquatic behavior. The current paper would do a critical discourse analysis of five Hindi language movies and pinpoint the diegetic and thematic elements in the said movies that ventured into creating water consciousness among the audience. The five movies that have been selected by the researchers in the process are Lagaan (2001), Well Done Abba (2010), Jal (2013), Kaun Kitney Paani Mein (2015), and Kadvi Hawa (2017).