1947: Earth

1947: Earth

MAIN CAST:
Nandita Das -- Shanta
Maia Sethna -- Lenny
Aamir Khan -- Diznavaz
Rahul Khanna -- Hasan

BRIEF PLOT OVERVIEW:
Lenny, a young Parsi girl, lives a charmed life, despite being afflicted with polio. She is lovingly cared for by her beautiful young nanny, Shanta, and the two ladies are surrounded by a variety of admirers, including the wealthy Sikh Sher Singh, Lenny's Hindu gardener, and of course, the "Ice Candy Wallah," a charming and mischievous Muslim with an affinity for poetry and practical jokes. But when the threat of the Partition becomes a reality, Lenny is forced to grin and bear it as her wonderful world is torn to pieces. This film is based on the novel "Cracking India," by Bapsi Sidhwa, and is one of three parts of director Deepa Mehta's elemental trilogy.

FILM -- 4.5/5
Deepa Mehta is a masterful film-maker, and it shows. All of Earth's scenes are handled with the utmost care, from Lenny's tender moments in the park to the terrifying riots in the streets, allowing the viewer to connect to the characters and grasp the gravity of the situation at hand. Yes, there's a bit of shoddy editing, and Earth moves very slowly for the first hour and a half, but it's not as if they're deliberately padding the film; they're simply treading lightly on its content. The script is believable and well-written. Earth's greatest strength may be that, more than any other Partition film, it does not take sides in the slightest. Obviously, the fact that the main character is a young Zoroastrian (people who are a minority the world over) and therefore a relative outsider to the Muslim/Sikh/Hindu violence helps, but so does the careful attention to detail. There is never a moment in the movie where we see one religion in a better light than another, be it a single follower of that religion or a group of devotees.

CHARACTERS -- 5/5
Earth's cast is absolutely superb. Nandita Das' Shanta is a charming, spunky young lady with a flirtatious side, though she's far from silly and is perfectly aware of what's going on around her. Her acting is so natural and her face is so luminous, it's clear why the male characters in the film flock to be around her. Maia Sethna, the young actress who plays Lenny, delivers her dialogue in a rather stilted manner from time to time, but that's about par for the course for a child actress, and it never shakes her character's credibility. Aamir Khan, a technical master when it comes to acting, may break your heart most of all as he carefully portrays Diznavaz's decline from a plucky "ice candy wallah" to a man on a quest for vengeance. The supporting cast is broad, but without a single blight. Everyone, from Kulbhushan Kharbanda (the Imam) to Rahul Khanna (Hasan) fits their part like a glove. As an added bonus, Shabana Azmi narrates the story!

SOUNDTRACK -- 4.5/5
Comprised entirely of background and flavor music, Earth's soundtrack is simple and effective. The songs' emotional lyrics are supported by only a few instruments and, as can be expected from an Indian film, rhythmic drum beats. Sukhwinder Singh and Srinivas are the soundtrack's standout vocalists as they belt or croon their respective tracks, allowing the music to add even more depth to the film's emotions.

OVERALL -- 4.5/5
There's no use in denying that Earth is a truly heartbreaking and honest film. While it isn't quite as perfectly-packaged as Fire, it is vastly more powerful than Water, and it is perhaps the most respectful of the three films in its treatment of Indian culture as a whole. That is, I sometimes felt like Fire and Water went out of their way to make India look terrible, while Earth featured some terrible subject matter and still maintained its integrity. When it comes to films about the Partition, Earth may very well top the list as the most touching of them all. I highly recommend it.

TOTAL SCORE -- 18.5 (almost perfect)