EARTH
(director/writer:
Deepa Mehta; screenwriter: adapted from Bapsi Sidhwa's semi-autobiographical
novel "Cracking India"; cinematographer: Giles Nuttgens; redactor: Barry
Farrell; cast: Nandita Das (Shanta ), Aamir Khan (Dil Navaz), Rahul Khanna
(Hasan), Maia Sethna (Lenny-Newborn Sethna), Kitu Gidwani (Bunty Sethna),
Kulbushan Kharbanda (Imam Din), Gulshan Grover (Singh), Arif Zakari (Rustom
Sethna), Pavan Malhotra (Butcher), Raghubir Yadav (Hariya/ Himmat Ali);
Runtime: 115; Zeitgeist Films; 1998-India/Can.)
"There was a certain power that
could not be denied."
For Ms. Deepa Mehta —
Fire
is the first film of her
trilogy on the elements, this her second, and
Water
, to be
filmed later, will be her third. She is the India-born native, now living
in Canada, who is the director of this sweeping panoramic film about the
partition of India in 1947, which resulted in the greatest migration of
people ever — of 12 million. There was also the slaughter of one million
on all sides.
The partition was decided unilaterally by the British. India and
its majority Hindu population and Pakistan and its majority Muslim population,
becoming separate countries. That event as it unfolded was seen through
the naive eyes of a crippled (polio-afflicted) 8-year-old girl, Lenny-Baby
(Maia), living in Lahore, who represents the book's author, Bapsi Sidhwa,
as a child.
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Lenny-Baby hears the arguments about the partition in her house over
dinner, as an arrogant British official gets into a fight over how India
will miss the British who kept all the different religions from killing
each other. He argues with a fanatical Sikh (a religion which combines
tenets of both Hinduism and Islam).
The ominous signs of the near-future come up again when Lenny-Baby
is taken to the park (Queens Gardens) by her nanny, the kindhearted and
beautiful Shanta (Nandita Das), where a multireligious group of Shanta's
friends meet daily to discuss the current issues. The group of friends
include Hasan the Muslim masseur (Khanna), Sher Singh the Sikh (Gulshan
Grover), Muslim Imam Din (Khalbushan Khalbanda), and Muslim Dil Nawaz (Khan),
the Ice Candy Man. Their discussions about independence and British withdrawal
from the region brings about a growing tension as Shanta, who is apolitical,
wishes that they do not discuss their heated differences when she is present.
Shanta has attracted all the men in her group but is being actively pursued
by two handsome Muslim young men — Hasan, an inventor of a product made
from fish oil that can grow hair on bald people and by Dil Navaz, who is
a voice of reason in the Muslim community. Lenny-Baby tags along with Shanta
whom she considers to be her best friend and is, at first, fascinated watching
the rascal-like Dil try to win Shanta over and then becoming more concerned
that she will lose her best friend to the earnest, soft-spoken Hasan, whom
she sees Shanta falling in love with.
The film offers a powerful history lesson of how religion is used
as an excuse to grab land and vent violence against another people in the
name of nationalism, as each side got trapped in the war fever. Muslim
was against Hindu-Sikh, with each side being guilty of massacring, kidnapping,
and raping each other.
The hope of India remaining peaceful is viewed best through the eyes
of an upper-class Parsee family, consisting of the gentle Bunty (Kitu)
and her practical-minded husband, Rustom (Arif), and their precocious daughter
Lenny-Baby. The family tries to bring all sides together. The Parsees are
descended from Muslims, who fled Persia in the ninth century to migrate
to India and have been an insignificant part of the India population ever
since their arrival. They aim to remain neutral in all the conflicts, to
emulate the Swiss during WW11. They believe they can be invisible, spreading
sweetness to the land like sugar placed in the middle of a glass of milk.
Besides, they realize it is the only way they can survive in this country.
The story picks up steam with independence acclaimed as a great day
by the politicians but in a Lahore, Pakistan, train station (the Lahore
scenes were filmed in New Delhi as the Pakistani government never got around
to granting the filmmaker permission to shoot there), where Dil is anxiously
waiting for his sister to arrive from just across the border in Gurdaspur,
India, the train pulls in late and when Dil looks on board, the carnage
is horrifying as everyone is brutally murdered. His sister's breasts are
removed and placed in gunnysacks filled with the severed breasts of other
Muslim women. This experience shatters Dil's faith in a peaceful solution
and a hatred grows within him. There is one last hope, as he tells Shanta
that his love for her is stronger than any hatred and only she can prevent
him from joining the cause of inflicting a violent upheaval against his
outnumbered neighbors by marrying him. But she chooses the more gentle
Hasan, whom she plans to marry and live with in India, as he tells her
that he will convert to Hinduism for her.
Lahore's Hindu section is burnt to the ground and total violence
becomes the rule of the day, after the train incident. The gardener (Yadav)
in the Parsee household converts to being a Muslim rather than being persecuted.
A 10-year-old sweeper's daughter is married off to an old dwarf so that
the Hindu family can convert to Christianity, as Lenny's mother comments
"Fear makes all of us to abandon reason." There is danger for everyone
in Lahore who isn't a Muslim or isn't active in the Muslim cause, even
the neutrality of the Parsee's home is compromised.
The problem with the film is threefold: One, is that all these tragic
events are translated through the childish eyes of Lenny who cannot possibly
grasp everything that is happening, she just doesn't have the maturity
to do that. Secondly, the tragic historical statistics speak for themselves
and it is unnecessary to be hammered over the head by repeatedly seeing
the events unfold through the eyes of an innocent child. The horror is
already a given and doesn't have to be reinforced by Lenny throwing a dish
on the floor and then asking her mother, if a country could be broken into
pieces like that. It was an unneeded artifice, that tended to spoil the
flow of the film's dramatics. The other problem with this otherwise splendid
history lesson and tragic love story, is that all the movie's metaphors
are used to amplify the historical tale and not to see more than what has
already been stated. The character's lives were reduced in scope and they
seemed to be milked for the benefit of making the story fit into the historical
text.
Earth
is based on a semiautobiographical novel by Bapsi Sidhwa,
called "Cracking India." It is stunningly photographed, using reds and
purples to express the blood-curdling scenes of Lahore under siege and
a glowing yellow is used for the warm household scenes and a brownish amber
to catch the vast beauty of the countryside. It is noteworthy for exploring
in detail the destruction of innocence and the arbitrary splitting up of
the earth, and how everyone gets caught up in the emotional frenzy of hatred
and how difficult it is to just do what is right. This is an on-going conflict
that still threatens the earth today and with both Pakistan and India armed
with atomic weapons, it only makes their religious conflict more perilous.
There was a certain power that could not be denied. Nandita Das as
Shanta, is the heart of the picture. Her performance is breathtaking. She
slowly finds love with Hasan, remains friendly with Dil Nawaz, and generously
serves the Sethna family. Nandita is the human face we remember about the
violence and the betrayal in Lahore. Aamir Khan as Dil Nawaz, who is a
very popular actor in India, is the force behind the film. His masterful
performance, changing from an endearing and helpful figure to one who embraces
violence, was what put a human face of evil on this melodrama.
REVIEWED ON 5/2/2000 GRADE: B
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