# Earth (1998)

### reviewed by
Harvey S. Karten

    EARTH

     Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D.
     Zeitgeist Films
     Director:  Deepa Mehta
     Writer:  Deepa Mehta, book "Cracking India" by Bapsi
    Sidhwa
     Cast: Nandita Das, Kitu Gidwani, Aamir Khan, Rahul
    Hkanna, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Eric Peterson, Maaia
    Sethna, Raghubir Yadav

One of the great songs that came out of the sixties is Tom Lehrer's "Who's Next," which opens thus: "First we got the bomb, and that was good/ 'Cause we love peace and motherhood/ Then Russia got the bomb, but that's okay/ 'Cause the balance of power's maintained that way/ Who's next." Lehrer runs down the powers that have procured nuclear capability: France, China, and some speculations including Monaco and Alabama, but failed to mention India and Pakistan which have both manufactured nuclear weapons since. Both powers on the Asian subcontinent recently tested some of their nuclear wares, causing commentators to fear an arms race between those two hostile nations. In the movie "Earth," Deepa Mehta takes us to the root of the animosity, doing so with only a small degree of didacticism for those in the audience whose familiarity with the period is scant. What makes "Earth" so intriguing, nay, riveting, is the way a romantic West Side Story line is seamlessly infused into a tale of violence situated in the Eastern Hemisphere and filmed in New Delhi.

The film's production notes imply that writer-director Deepa Mehta holds the British largely responsible for the deaths of one million Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs following the partition of the Indian subcontinent in August 1947. She gives the impression that if the retreating British government simply left the former colony alone, the various groups would have found a way to live side by side as they had done by centuries. Only when the imperial government decided against the wishes of such notables as Mahatma Gandhi to split the predominantly Muslim area in the north (which became Pakistan) from the mainly Hindu peoples in India, the huge religious cliques became determined to snatch what land they could for themselves. Mehta makes her viewpoint vivid by organizing his principals to represent the involved sects. The stunning Shanta (Nandita Das), a servant in the home of the wealthy Parsee, Bunty Sethna (Kitu Gidwani), is a Hindu whose lover of choice is the Muslim Hasan (Rahul Khanna). Dil Navaz aka the Ice Candy Man (Aamir Khan), a drop-dead handsome suitor, is competing for Shanta's hand. The actions are viewed through the eyes of eight-year-old Lenny (Maia Sethna), a Parsee whose semi-autobiographical book "Cracking India" is the basis of Deepa Mehta's screenplay.

As the British prepare to disband in August 1947, they announce their partition plans just two days in advance, a scheme which almost immediately leads to raging hostilities by people who had lived together as friends and neighbors for centuries. Sikhs are accused of being the battle arm of Hindus and become thereby the enemy of the Muslims. As Hindus and Muslims alternately demonstrate loudly through the streets of Pakistan's largest city, Lahore, violence erupts. A Hindu tenement in the city is set afire while Muslim "firemen" pour oil, not water, onto the blaze. When a train arrives from the city of Gurdaspur crammed with the dead bodies of Muslims killed by Hindus, the handsome and heretofore charming Ice Candy Man vows revenge for the brutal slaying of his sisters--a pledge that would lead to a Romeo-and-Juliet style tragedy toward the conclusion of Mehta's epic tale.

While the battle scenes are brief, sporadic and filmed with no great effort to emulate the grand design of Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan," the emphasis is on the growing romance between Shanta and the peace-loving and sincere Hassan. In a climactic scene, the Hindu and Muslim principals are witnessed in the act of love by the already fuming Ice Candy Man, a display that greatly inflames his already venomous soul.

While "Earth" has far more in common with the genius of Satyajit Ray's output than with the current, fluffy turnout of the Bombay film industry, Mehta throws in a delightful segment of song and dance led by Shanta--in the tradition of hundreds of throwaway Indian commercial films. But whereas the South Asian country's traditional cinema coyly shuns even the appearance of kissing, Mehta is not shy about displaying the act of love, albeit with body parts discreetly hidden.

It's a stretch to say that "Earth" combines the classic theme of Shakespeare's famous star-crossed lovers with, say, the combative drama of Henry V. Yet by weaving romance with politics so intriguingly, Mehta vividly shows the profound effect that global and national politics can have on as personal a tale as an ill-fated attachment between two loving people. As India and Pakistan face off this very year in the ongoing conflict over the status of Kashmir, even provocatively waving their nuclear arsenals at one another, we in the audience cannot help thinking of scores of struggles caused simply because two or more peoples with different cultures suddenly decide they cannot live together peacefully. Never mind what they tell you in high school that Hindus hate Muslims for eating cows and Muslims reciprocate against the pork-eating Hindus. Conflicting dietary restrictions are not the point. The essence is that the Creator did not make us all alike in appearance, cultural values, and modes of religious veneration. This should not be a problem under normal conditions, and even during periods of stress individuals of different backgrounds can form profound romantic attachments. But when political, economic or social changes threaten to upset stability, watch out. No other movie to date this year brings this concept home as well as this one, a picture that is thrillingly down to "Earth."

    Not Rated.  Running Time: 110 minutes.  (C) 1999
    Harvey Karten

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