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• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1567301886

Editorial Reviews

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A tragedy set against the ethnic violence of India's independence in 1947, the second film in Deepa Mehta's elemental India trilogy is even more incendiary than her controversial Fire. Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, and Parsees alike buzz like bees around the lovely flower Shanta (Nandita Das), the Hindu nanny of sheltered 8-year-old Parsee girl Lenny-baby. This sunny Eden of racial harmony plunges into darkness when independence brings the partition of the empire and sets ethnic groups against one another in civil war. As seen through the naive eyes of little Lenny-baby, Earth is more tragic melodrama than social history, but what Mehta's adaptation of Bapsi Sidhwa's autobiographical novel Cracking India lacks in insight, it makes up for in fiery imagery, emotional passion, and a heavy-hearted longing for the paradise lost. --Sean Axmaker

From The New Yorker

India's tumultuous partition, in 1947, is recalled by a Parsi woman who was eight at the time and living in Lahore. The story centers on the girl's excursions about the city with her nanny, a beautiful young Hindu woman (Nandita Das) with a diverse group of friends which includes Sikhs and Muslims; they make where they can an idyll of their unprivileged lives. History intrudes on them, as history will, but in this sumptuous, disturbing film, director Deepa Mehta handles her material convincingly, and the cast is so likable that they wear the Larger Themes like beautiful garments. "Earth" has an urgency and a narrative economy like "Casablanca" 's; A. R. Rahman's hypnotic score and Giles Nuttgens's passionate cinematography contribute significantly to this effect. -Jeff Gustavson
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another raw element, December 30, 2004

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Amanda Richards (Georgetown, Guyana) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 1947 Earth (DVD)

"Earth" is a totally different movie to "Fire" but just as controversial. While "Fire" touches on forbidden relationships and the dominance of men, "Earth" explores religion, an incendiary topic at the best of times.

Set in Lahore, India in 1947, this is a story of friendship, love, jealousy, betrayal, politics and ethnic cleansing. The main character is a young disabled Parsee girl named Lenny, who lives a comfortable life with her wealthy parents. Her nanny Shanta (Nandita Das, who also stars in Fire) is Hindu, and together with Lenny, enjoys the company of a diverse group of friends, including two Muslims, another Hindu and a Sikh.

Shanta falls in love with Hasan (Rahul Khanna) a peaceful, intelligent Muslim masseur, despite the affection of Dil Navez, known as "Ice Candy Man" (Aamir Khan).

The partition of India splits the group wide apart, and in the ethnic violence following independence, Dil Navez' sisters are brutally butchered. Turning to Shanta for support and love, his marriage proposal is rebuffed, and the final straw comes when he watches an intimate act between Shanta and Hasan.

The violence eventually reaches Lenny's household, as an angry Muslim mob descends on the property looking for Hindus, and she learns the hard way that even your friends can betray you under the right circumstances.

This movie graphically depicts the violence of ethnic cleansing, the horror of which overshadows the beauty of romance, the closeness of friendship and the happiness of families.

Well directed and acted, this movie may bring tears to the eyes of even the most jaded viewers.

Amanda Richards, December 30, 2004

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ethnic hatred takes over friendship and a world goes mad!, October 29, 2000

By 

Linda Linguvic (New York City) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Earth [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Filmed in English and Hindi, this is the story of the partition of India in 1947, when Great Britain gave India her freedom, and partitioned the country into what is now India and Pakistan.

The story is told through the eyes of an eight-year-old upper class Parsee girl. She has large dark eyes filled with wonder, a crippled leg, and the wisdom of innocence as she observes a world going mad around her.

The city of Lahore, now in Pakistan, was in India then, and all the sects lived together in peace. Now, it becomes the site of turmoil and disaster as friends turn against each other and the blood bath begins.

The casting is perfect, the characters attractive and excellent actors, the music an important component of the internal and external dramas going on. The script is tight, the characterization deep, the story interesting on many levels.

The new country of Pakistan becomes Muslim and although the Parsees can remain there in peace, Hindus and Sikhs must leave. The situation is reversed in what becomes India, which forces the Muslims to leave. There are riots. Explosions. Atrocities by both sides so terrible that I shudder with revulsion.

The eight year old girl with the crippled leg is a witness to her times.

Don't miss the opportunity to view this video, feel the pain and passion of the individual characters, and experience a history that most Americans have little knowledge of. It's time to learn. And its time to understand.

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful and Courageous Film, December 31, 2000

By 

A Disappointed Reader (My Humble Abode) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Earth [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Deepa Mehta's film "Earth" is at once tragic and courageous. It follows the lives of several people during the harsh times of Indian independence, in 1947. So many times, the portrayl of this era in cinema - which itself is very rare - idolizes only the events leading up to independence, usually following Gandhi. What is ignored by most of the media, though finally brought to light in "Earth," is the near anarchy that followed as religions that had survived peacefully for centuries aside one another erupted in a clash of ethnic warfare. Muslims and Hindus, brothers in the subcontinent for hundreds of years, clashed against one another over land and religion. Sikhs, too, who had been in India for hundreds of years as well, fell into this pot of warfare.

"Earth" discusses these events plainly but beautifully. The film itself is wonderful cinema: the plot continues to develop, the characters are real, and the tragedies are terribly saddening. There are moments of humor, of course, but most of the movie involves seeing those images of oppression and violence that have been shielded from view for so long. At one point, an entire traincar arrives, only to be filled with the bodies of dead Muslims - slaughtered, presumably, by Hindus, Sikhs, or others - from a nearby city. Later on, when a Hindu tenement in the city of Lahore (where the movie takes place) catches on fire, the Muslim firefighters douse the building not in water, but in petrol, escalating the flames. And after this has happened - after the audience and the characters have bore witness to horrible, unforgivable atrocities - the movie makes a very important point, that, though disturbing, is truly exemplified in the Indian subcontinet of 1947: everyone - be they Sikhs, Hindus, or Muslims - can be bad, and they can all do horrible acts to each other. The movie makes a point not to side with any individual religion. We see elements of Islam, elements of Sikhism and Hinduism, elements of the Parsees, and the movie remains non-judgemental. Everyone (well, not the Parsees too much) perform terrible acts to everyone else. By not being judgemental, "Earth" shows how these religions, these people that fought against each other with vehement, all have a very potent similarity. They are all capable of viciousness and inhumanity. "Earth" is a fabulous film, and is a must-see. Even if one is isn't interested in the workings of the wars that seperated India and Pakistan in 1947, one should see "Earth," as it finally shows those hidden deaths, those hidden tragedies, to the public eye. Bravo, Deepa Mehta.