Earth movie review & film summary (1999)

The film is told as a melodrama and romance, not docudrama, and that makes it all the more effective. It sees much of the action through the eyes of a little brace-legged Parsee girl named Lenny, whose beautiful Hindu nanny, or "ayah," is admired by all the men in a circle of friends. The ayah is Shanta (Nandita Das), with glowing eyes and a warm smile. She slowly comes to love Hasan, a masseur (Rahul Khanna), who is Muslim. She likes, but does not love, Dil, known as "Ice Candy Man" and played by the Indian star Aamir Khan. Her life is pleasant in a wealthy Parsee household ruled by Lenny's kind mother and officious father.

The friends meet in a nearby park, for talk that sometimes turns political. They all agree that they are above hatreds based on religion. The little girl looks and listens. Often she is present when Hasan courts the shy Shanta, and even watches as they share their first bashful kiss--just before the screen turns black and ominous music introduces shots of Hindu refugees trekking from the new Pakistan to India, and Muslims making the opposite journey.

It is hard for us to imagine the upheaval and suffering unleashed when the British washed their hands of the jewel in their crown. Imagine a United States in which those with a last name beginning with a vowel had to leave their homes and belongings and trek north, while those with a consonant had to leave everything behind and trek south. Now add bloodthirsty mobs of zealots on all sides.

The film is based on the novel Cracking India, by Bapsi Sidhwa. It is said to be partly autobiographical. She remembers the last moments of harmony among the groups, in particular a day spend on rooftops flying brightly colored kites. A few weeks later, from the same rooftops, some of the same people watch Hindu tenements in flames (the "firemen" spray gasoline on them) and a Muslim man torn in two by a mob that ties his arms to two automobiles. At home, little Lenny and her brother tear her favorite doll in two, and the ayah tearfully tries to stitch it back together.

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