Deepa Mehta's Oscar nomintaed 'Water' today finally hit the theatres in India after the shooting of the film was abandoned here in 2000 in the wake of the violent protests against the film by the hard-line Hindu groups.

The film, nominated for this year's Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category, opened in country-wide theatres to rave reviews.

Set in the 1930s and dealing with Hindu child widows, the shooting of the film witnessed violent protests by groups like Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena, who alleged that the film was portraying India's culture in poor light.

India-born Mehta even received death threats leading her film unit to abandon the shooting in India, that had cast acclaimed actress Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das in the role of the widows of Varanasi.

Five years later, she shot the film in Sri Lanka with Lisa Ray and John Abraham in the lead.

"It's a beautiful film. It shows the facts of life and it has also been concluded beautifully, the way it says- that now we are changing, we have changed and it's no more the way it was before," said Asha Rai, a viewer who found it a touching film.

Most audiences appreciated the works of John Abraham and Lisa Ray, and that of the child actor who played the affable character 'Chuhiya'.

"First of all, it's an art movie, so it's very slow. So it's like you have to concentrate a lot. Apart from that...it was, like...fine," a college going student Deepika said about the movie, which made an official entry to the Academy Awards from Canada, thanks to a change in the Oscar rules.

"Water" completes a film trilogy that includes "Earth" and "Fire".