Nobody could have missed the immense look of pride on filmmaker Deepa Mehta's face as she sat in the audience for a book reading in New York City. The author was Deepa's daughter, Devyani Saltzman, reading from her recently published memoir, Shooting Water. It has been a long and arduous road for Deepa and Devyani. The resurrection and filming of Water was not just a realisation of the filmmaker's dream but also a new beginning for the relationship between mother and daughter.

Devyani's parents divorced when she was 11 years old. She recalls being asked to choose which of her parents she would rather live with. At that point she opted to live with her father, Canadian filmmaker Paul Saltzman, a decision that seems to have haunted the mother-daughter relationship ever since. Devyani recalls growing up with a constant 'weight' she felt burdened by, a deep mix of hurt and guilt that stifled her. In her courageous memoir she traces the filming of Water - the trauma and the tears that went into a film that created waves the world over.

Chatting with Deepa and Devyani didn't feel any different from any mother daughter interaction. The conversation had some emotional moments, lots of casual banter punctuated with laughter. The two seemed to have left their problems way behind, cruising ahead with a newfound understanding and mutual admiration for each other. It seemed like the 'weight' had finally disseminated leaving them to just revel in their affections for one another.

It all began in 1999, when Devyani was 19 and Deepa invited her to Benares to work as a third assistant camera person for the last part of her trilogy and most controversial film yet. Water explores the fate of Hindu widows in colonial India and is the story of an eight-year-old girl, Chuyia, a widow herself, who stirs the others to question the life of penitence and poverty imposed by society on them. Both Deepa and Devyani saw this as an ideal opportunity to spend time together and mend their strained relationship. However, the shooting of Water was cut short by Hindu fundamentalists who destroyed the movie sets, burnt an effigy of the director and threatened her life if she did not shut down production. Deepa and her crew were finally forced to stop the filming. After three years of coming to terms with the anger and hurt, Deepa restarted the project that had become an even more intense creative obsession. Water was reborn in Sri Lanka under a decoy production title and became Deepa and Devyani's second chance to heal their open wounds.

Working together on Water was a very comfortable experience for both of them as professionals, despite their strained personal relationship. Devyani worked as a stills photographer for the film. "We were working together, yet I was not directly assisting her but doing something that was quite independent. We were both very busy with our own areas of work." Deepa concurs, "When Devyani came to the set of Water in Sri Lanka, she was supposed to be in the camera department. However, the producer and the production designer noticed her talent for photography and thought she would make a wonderful stills photographer. She took up the opportunity and she's done a fantastic job."

Getting to this point has not been easy for Deepa and Devyani. In Shooting Water, Devyani is bravely transparent about her troubled relationship with her mother and her attempts to deal with varied emotions. It could not have been easy revealing those intimate moments of hurt and vulnerability. "I have read so many books and memoirs that were honest and beautiful, that I was inspired by them. It made me realise that everyone carries their own weight and that I was not the only one who felt pain. I had an important story that I wanted to tell." As a mother, Deepa says that the first time she read the book she couldn't wait to turn the pages: "I loved so many aspects of the book but most of all I love the honesty that comes right through. I like the way Devyani openly talks about her first love and the heartbreak she went through. It was so moving for me. And of course, being a mother I felt so protective about her and wish I could have protected her from all that." Devyani is quick to jump in, "And, that's how protective I felt of her when Mom was receiving life threatening calls during the opposition of Water. I wouldn't even let her pick up the phone." The gentle thoughtfulness in her voice conveys just how strong this journey together has made them.

So when did their relationship actually begin to change? Interestingly, both of them perceive the change to have taken place at different points in their lives. But they do agree that the rebuilding was gradual. According to Devyani, "I felt the change when I was about 17 and started at Oxford University. It was the first time that I was on my own, away from both my parents. As I entered into my adult life a realisation began to come about." For Deepa, the transformation took place much earlier. "I felt we began to get closer when she was much younger. We also travelled together around that time which I thought brought us closer to each other." But the watershed was undoubtedly during the making of Water. It hurtled them through so much hardship and emotional upheaval that it only brought them closer than ever.

Like any mother and daughter, the two quarrel about the most common things, like who washes the dishes, does the cleaning and sorts out untidy cupboards. Devyani accuses her mother of being a 'clean freak'. "My mother is like a Windex Express," she says and Deepa is quick to defend herself, "Well I might be a clean freak but Devyani has the messiest closet. Though she did the sweetest thing recently. I had just returned from Australia and entered the house to find it spotlessly clean and tidy. It was her surprise for me."

So are these two incredibly creative women also critical of each other's work? Deepa critiquing Devyani as a writer laughingly says, "I keep telling Devyani that she needs to work on her grammar. She writes really long sentences and doesn't punctuate enough. In India I remember we studied a subject called English Language in school that was entirely focused on the subject of grammar and its usage. I also keep telling her that she should not hold back as a writer - just write everything and it can always be edited." Devyani too admits that she has been critical of her mother's work in the past. "When I first read the script of Mom's film, Bollywood Hollywood, I didn't think much of it. But, I did like it when it was completed. There are also other things that I would like her to change, like quit smoking...."

This leads to a whole new argument where it seemed more like Devyani was Deepa's mother rather than the other way around. But then, most mothers and daughters would recognise this moment, wouldn't they?