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Description: Earth, The second film in Deepa Mehta's controversial trilogy is an emotionally devastating love story set within the sweeping social upheaval and violence of 1947 India. As her country teeters on the brink of self rule and instability, 8-year old Lenny, an innocent girl from an affluent family, is in danger of having her world turned upside down. As the simmering violence around them reaches a boiling point, Lenny's beautiful nanny Shanta (Nandita Das) falls in love with one of Lenny's heroes,… the charismatic and peace-advocating Hassan. Love, however, can be dangerous when religious differences are tearing the country apart, and friendships and loyalty are put to the test. Building to a shattering climax, Earth is a devastating human drama in which desire unfolds into a stirring tale of love and the ultimate betrayal. Amazon.com: 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
Customer Reviews:
- Not as good as "Water": I gravitated toward this movie after seeing "Water," which I thought was amazing. "Earth" seemed to me to be, though ambitious in scope and subject, a much less accomplished film--somewhat pedantic and leaden, awkward and fragmented. The characters all too obviously stand in for aspects of the social and political landscape, whereas in "Water," the characters' stories and relationships with each other, while embodying larger issues, were for me much more involving, immediate, vivid, and poignant. I think Mehta grew enormously as a filmmaker between making these films.
- Devastation on Film: I decided that because Water and Fire were such brilliant films, I had to see Earth as well. Deepa Mehta is an unbelievably remarkable film-maker, and I knew that Earth would be up to her usual genius - beautiful shots, tenderness and pain, all I have come to expect from her. Earth, however, so aptly titled, went far beyond what I expected. First of all, its educational aspect cannot be overlooked - I thought I knew Indian history, but things on a page are very different from the visceral definition of what they mean captured on film. The sudden barbarism of people who had lived peacefully side by side for centuries, is beautifully rendered using a group of friends who represent all the factions that emerged at Britian's departure from and catastrophic division of India. The agony of loss and suffering of love are painted so believably by this most intelligent and creative director that you are there, aching with the characters. Earth is a painfully beautiful film, devastating and gorgeous at once, and totally, frighteningly, unforgettable.
- Earth: This child's-eye view of historic unrest in newly postcolonial India, which erupted in violence after independence and the creation of Muslim Pakistan, is a timely film about ethnic and religious conflict wrapped around a story of forbidden love. Seductive and sorrowful, "Earth" boasts fine acting - including a rousing turn by Aamir Khan, as Shanta's lover-turned-embittered-bigot, Ice Candy Man - and exquisite, honey-hued photography by lensman Giles Nuttgens.
- EARTH Review: EARTH, like FIRE and WATER, is a powerful and rewarding film that explores the social and political history of India. Together, these films are a body of work that deserves a wider audience than the foreign films section of the local DVD library.
- How best friends become enemies:The breakup of India: This is the first of a trilogy of films written and directed by Deepa Mehta.EARTH is the film that sets up the following films by telling us the history of the breakup of India from British rule.For 250 years Hindus,Muslims,Sikhs and Parcees had all coexisted under British Colonial rule.Now,in 1947 Britain,as it is pulling out,divides the land into India and Pakistan.The best of friends and families are forced to choose where they will go and where their loyalties will be.Nine year old Lenny-baby.a lame girl from the neutral Parcees,witnesses this calamity as the story is told from her innocent viewpoint.EARTH sets up the conditions that existed in India at the time to prepare you for the following FIRE and WATER.EARTH is an excellent companion movie to GANDHIand A PASSAGE TO INDIA as it sets all of the historical facts into place,yet telling the story with great pathos.EARTH is the most action oriented of the Deepa Mehta trilogy.FIRE and WATER are much more introspective and reflective.THIS IS A TREMENDOUS THREESOME OF FILMS THAT ARE ALL HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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