Mehta's `Earth': A Partition Of Grievances

Movie review XXX "Earth," with Aamir Khan, Nandita Das, Rahul Khanna, Kitu Gidwani. Written and directed by Deepa Mehta, based on Bapsi Sidhwa's novel, "Cracking India." 104 minutes. Egyptian. No rating; includes violence, profanity, sex scene.

Gorgeous and troubling, Deepa Mehta's "Earth" uses the 1947 partition of India to focus on a Parsi (neutral) family trying to keep from choosing sides in the midst of civil war.

The movie has its didactic moments, when the characters seem to be explaining the situation more to the audience than to each other, but ultimately it succeeds in demonstrating how personal, religious and political issues fuse in creating a monumental tragedy.

More than 1 million Muslims and Hindus were killed in that transitional phase in India's recent history. Mehta, working from a novel by Bapsi Sidhwa, "Cracking India," concentrates on an 8-year-old girl, Lenny (Maia Sethna), whose parents attempt to remain nonpartisan while employing a beautiful Hindu nanny, Shanta (Nandita Das).

"Who can we not betray?" says the husband. "We must all think Swiss."

Shanta has a better notion of the chaos in store for them all, though she doesn't realize that her relationships with two suitors and with the polio-stricken Lenny will be pivotal.

Dil Navaz, nicknamed Ice Candy Man (and played with seductive assurance by Indian superstar Aamir Khan), is Lenny's favorite, a brazen bad boy who will do anything to attract Shanta. But Shanta is

more interested in Hasan (Rahul Khanna), a gentle masseur who promises to ask more than her immediate attention.

When partition is declared, Dil Navaz's sisters are murdered in an assault on a Muslim train, and it quickly becomes impossible to remain neutral. Lenny and Shanta watch from the roof of Dil Navaz's tenement as revenge is enacted on the streets.

Hindus slaughter Muslims. Muslims burn Hindus alive. Eventually the Muslims arrive at Lenny's door, demanding that they release Shanta, who is in hiding. The Hindu-Muslim friendships that had seemed so solid under British rule begin to unravel.

Mehta, a Canadian-Indian filmmaker who was born in India, never neglects the reasons behind her characters' actions. She even includes a prophecy by a British character who accurately predicts that the immediate impact of self-rule will be social disaster. The movie can't encompass the history of Hindu-Muslim revelations before the British influence was felt, but it seems quite fair-minded in its attempt to deal with the immediate impact of partition.

Handsomely photographed by Giles Nuttgens (who shot Mehta's previous film, "Fire"), "Earth" was scored by Ar Rahman, who nearly turns it into a musical at its most intense moments. He's composed the scores for many Indian films (as well as "Fire"), and he does an exceptionable job of making this one stand out.