Main Cast: Aamir Khan, Nandita Das, Rahul Khanna, Maia Sethna, Kitu Gidwani
Release Year: 1998
Country: IN/CA
Run Time: 108 minutes
Plot
Deepa Mehta directed this Indian-Canadian romantic drama, the second part of a trilogy. Based on Bapsi Sidhwa's autobiography, Cracking India, the story is set in 1947 in Lahore, where Hindu, Sikh, Parsee, and Muslim share a peaceful co-existence. Events are seen from the point of view of eight-year-old Lenny (Maia Sethna), a girl from an affluent Parsee family. Lenny's nanny, Shantya (Nandita Das), is involved with the Muslim Masseur (Rahul Khanna). When a train of Muslims arrives at the local depot and all the passengers are found murdered, the various sects turn against each other, and the city is soon aflame. Shown at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
Review
An ambitious film, Earth wants to dramatize a forbidden love affair set in turbulent political times and see the events through the eyes of a young girl. It succeeds well enough, though the plot occasionally becomes mechanistic, allowing all of the major religious and ethnic groups involved with the partition of India (creating the separate country of Pakistan as India was becoming independent) to express their own views. Lenny, the crippled little girl, watches Shantya, her nanny, fall in love with Hasan the masseur, a man she likes well enough, but her preference for the Ice Candy Man, proves to be the couple's undoing. Nandita Das is supple as the nanny, and Rahul Khanna is stalwart as the masseur, but it's Aamir Khan (best known to Western audiences as the lead in Lagaan) who's the real fulcrum of the film. His frustrations in love poison his soul, allowing him to join the mobs of rampaging Muslims who sought out Hindus for persecution and worse. Lenny follows her naïvely neutral father's lead ("We must all think Swiss"), but her ignorance is at least excusable. Writer/director Deepa Mehta must be applauded for trying to capture a complex time in her country's history, and Westerners with little concept of how violent a birth modern India and Pakistan endured should see Earth. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
Cast
Aamir Khan - Dil Nawaz, Ice Candy Man
Nandita Das - Ayah Shanta
Rahul Khanna - Hasan
Maia Sethna - Lenny
Kitu Gidwani - Bunty Sethna
Kulbhushan Kharbanda - Imam Din; Arif Zakaria - Rustom Sethna; Gulshan Grover - Mr. Singh; Eric Peterson - Mr. Rogers; Shabana Azmi - Older Lenny (Voice); Raghubir Yadav - Hari; Alwin Arifen - Refugee Boy; Jaaved Jaaferi - Radio Announcer; Bapsi Sidhwa - Older Lenny; Nurul Islam Bablu - Chotay; Antonio Minnecola Hussain - Muslim Man Quartered; Navtej Johar - Sher Singh; Pavan Malhotra - Butcher; Sunil Mehra - Toto Ramji; Bobby Singh - Yousaf; Kabir Chowdhry - Cousin Adi; Lauren Walker - Mrs. Rogers; Cinia Jain - Mrs. Singh; Roshan Banu - Papoo; Radhika Singh - Muchoo; Varun Mehta - Boy at Bioscope; Mahosh Gahalot - Muslim Father; Gitanjili Chopra - Muslim Mother; Sahiba Chopra - Daughter; Sia Chopra - Daughter; Annabelle - Daughter; Sandeep Singh - Little Sick Boy; Rahul Ram - Young Sikh Man; Ravinder Kumar - Young Muslim Man; Veer Prakash Nayar - Papoo's Groom; Kumar Rajendra - Refugee Police; Ashok Jain - Refugee Police; Pradeep Kapoor - Station Master; Malani Ramani - Cousin Adi's Mother; Mohini Mathur - Sher Singh's Mother; Mayura Baweja - Sher Singh's Sister; Madhavendra - Mob Leader; Mohammed Irahad - Mob Member; Sagar Zakhmi - Mob Member; Avinash Nimeshswami - Mob Member; Nagesh Salwan - Mob Member; Adil Sheikh - Mob Member; Anil Prakash - Mob Member; Vinod Nahardi - Mob Member
Credit
Uma Da Cunha - Casting, Dolly Ahluwalia Tewari - Costume Designer, D. Dylan Gray - First Assistant Director, Kumar Rajendra - First Assistant Director, Monsoon Bissell - First Assistant Director, Peter Palatsik - First Assistant Director, Harveer Singh - First Assistant Director, Deepa Mehta - Director, Barry Farrell - Editor, Jhamu Sughand - Executive Producer, David Hamilton - Executive Producer, Debra Henderson - Hair Styles, Edwin Williams - Location Manager, A.R. Rahman - Composer (Music Score), Javed Akhtar - Songwriter, Nicole Demers - Makeup, Aradhana Seth - Production Designer, Giles Nuttgens - Cinematographer, Deepa Mehta - Producer, Anne Masson - Producer, Delip Mehta - Producer, Barbara O'Kelly - Story Editor, Anthony Fernandez - Special Effects, Babu Meckwan - Special Effects, Graham Ross - Sound Mixer, Alan Amin - Stunts Coordinator, Iqbal Mobashir Kidwai - Unit Production Manager, Deepa Mehta - Screenwriter, Jim Hopkins - Sound Effects Editor, Richard Kelly - Sound Effects Editor, Alex Boothby - Matte Artist, Kelly Black - Production Coordinator, Nupu Chaudhuri - Production Coordinator, Daniela Sajoni - Script Supervisor, Jim Hopkins - Supervising Sound Editor, Ian Hopkins - Dialogue Editor, Cathy Hutton - Dialogue Editor, Denis Blais - Foley Artist, Paul N. Martin - Production Controller, Joan Kirby - Production Controller, Bapsi Sidhwa - Book Author, Vince Agostini - Foley Recordist
Earth (Hindi: अर्थ; released in India as 1947: Earth) is a 1998 film directed by Deepa Mehta. It is based upon Bapsi Sidhwa's novel, Cracking India, (1991, U.S.; 1992, India; originally published as Ice Candy Man, 1988, England). Earth is the second part of a linked trilogy by Mehta; it was preceded by Fire (1996) and followed by Water (2005).
The story is set in Lahore in the time period directly before and during the partition of India in 1947.
A young girl with polio, Lenny (Maia Sethna), narrates the story through the voice of her adult self (Shabana Azmi). She is from a wealthy Parsi family who hopes to remain neutral to the rising tensions between Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims in the area. She is adored and protected by her parents, Bunty (Kitu Gidwani) and Rustom (Arif Zakaria) and is cared for by her Ayah, the beautiful Hindu woman, Shanta (Nandita Das). Both Dil, the Ice-Candy Man (Aamir Khan) and Hassan, the Masseur (Rahul Khanna) are Muslim and in love with Shanta. Shanta, Dil, and Hassan are part of a larger multi-ethnic group of Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh friends (some of whom work for Lenny's family) who spend their days together in the park. With partition, however, this once unified group of friends becomes divided and tragedy ensues.
Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and states that Earth, "is effective because it doesn't require much history from its viewers, explains what needs to be known, and has a universal message."[1]The New York Times described it as "a powerful and disturbing reminder of how a civilization can suddenly crack under certain pressures."[2]The New Yorker argues that, "Deepa Mehta handles her material convincingly, and the cast is so likable that they wear the larger themes like beautiful garments."[3]Rediff.com notes that, "Aamir Khan has probably given the best performance of his life. It is hard to imagine another actor bringing alive the nuances of the ice-candy man the way he does."[4]Planet Bollywood gave the film a 9.5 out of 10 and stated that, "Earth is strongly recommended to those who want to see a different type of Hindi film and who are tired of the usual boy meets girl stories and revenge dramas."[5]
