Imagining India in Mehta's Earth

Earth, the second film in director Deepa Mehta's prospective trilogy Fire, Earth and Water, tells the tragic story of the 1947 partition of India as witnessed by Lenny Sethna (Maia Sethna), an 8 year-old Parsee girl. Based on Bapsi Sidwha's novel Cracking India, Earth explores the controversial British partition of India into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan, which caused inter-religious massacres by the same Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims who had lived together peacefully for many years. Lahore, the city in which Lenny lives, was the site of a particularly bloody confrontation reflective of the widespread atrocities, deportations and murders that rampaged across the sub-continent before the establishment of an uneasy peace.

Mehta, an Indian-born Canadian director, has yet again challenged India's political conservatives. Unlike Fire, which directly criticizes India's societal hypocrisy, Earth shifts a fair amount of the blame onto the ignorance of the paternalistic British imperialists, who ended up causing one of the 20th century's bloodiest ethnic wars in their attempt to control the fate of the Indian people and their government. Before the partition takes place, Lenny, despite being forced by polio to wear a leg brace, enjoys a happy childhood playing under the care of her nanny Shanta (Nandita Das). Shanta is a beautiful young Hindu woman who attracts suitors from all three religious backgrounds: Hindu, Sikh and Muslim. The two suitors that Shanta most favors with her attention are both Muslim: the charismatic yet somewhat roguish Dil Navaz or "Ice Candy Man" (Aamir Khan) and the kind, gentle Hasan (Rahul Khanna), Lenny's hero.

As these lamentable historical events unfold, Lenny's sheltered life begins to crumble despite her membership in the Parsi faith, which maintains her family neutral as the violence between Hindus and Muslims escalates. Shanta's suitors, originally friends, begin to divide along religious lines as news of genocidal bloodshed trickles in from the surrounding areas. As Lahore itself begins the tumultuous transition from a former Indian city to its current status as the capitol of Pakistan, a variety of the characters' dispositions also change. The transformation of "Ice Candy Man" is the most dramatic, as he goes from being the reasonable peacemaker among the group to the most extreme example of religious hatred. Shanta falls in love with Hasan, much to the chagrin of the "Ice Candy Man", but their relationship appears almost inconsequential after the figurative and literal arrival of genocide in the form of a train filled with the bodies of Muslim men and children, along with gunnysacks filled with the severed breasts of Muslim women.

The film's intention for using a child's perspective manifests itself most clearly when Lenny innocently asks the "Ice Candy Man" if he saw his two sisters, who were on the train, in one of the sacks. In another scene, Lenny sees the Muslim refugees camped next door and asks her cousin who they are. Irritated that her cousin will not explain what he means by "fallen women" and "rape," she questions a young boy. The boy describes how he hid under dead bodies until the massacre of his village was complete and then went to search for his mother, whom he found hanging naked in the village mosque. When pressed by Lenny to explain further, the boy states "My mother was raped" and then immediately asks Lenny if she wants to play marbles with him. The juxtaposition of extreme violence with childhood innocence highlights the senseless nature of the adults' actions. Lenny's innocence remains, however, until the bitter, heartbreaking, and violent conclusion tears away her naivet. The film ends with a flash-forward to the year 1999 and a trite voice-over by a grown-up Lenny, leaving the audience with a highly unsatisfying finish that ruins the epic quality of the film.

Some critics have compared Earth unfavorably to Mehta's Fire, claiming that Earth is no more than a heavy-handed sermon and history lesson. While Fire may be a more brilliantly produced film, dismissing Earth as irrelevant would be an egregious error. A moving depiction of nationalism gone horribly wrong, Earth is richly filmed and extremely well-acted, a film worth seeing by anyone who enjoys a well-written, heart-wrenchingly beautiful story of lost innocence and passionate love destroyed by ignorance and fear. The recent confrontation between India and Pakistan involving nuclear weapons shows the continuing relevance of an event that happened over half a century ago. Furthermore, Earth offers frightening insight into the tragedy and violence that can be associated with partitioning, an issue applicable to many part of the modern world. With the phenomenal Fire and Earth under her belt, Mehta will doubtlessly meet the high expectations the film community has for Water, the anticipated final film in her trilogy.