1947 Earth is a story about the partition of India told from the perspective of a little Parsee girl living in Lahore. The little girl has a beautiful Nanny (Nandita Das) who takes her for many walks in the various Lahore parks. There she hangs out with men of various ethnicities - Sikh, Muslim, Hindu and various lowly occupations like masseur, ice-candy seller, lion keeper etc. Nary a woman is seen to venture anywhere near this crowd. The Parsee parents are genteel, rich and also mingle with upper crust people of various ethnicities. Talks of partition are in the air, there is chaos in the streets yet the nanny continues to take the kid out on walks and into the bustling inner city streets. The parents seem to have abdicated all responsibilities toward their child. The Ice Candy man (very well played by Aamir Khan) is secretly in love with the nanny, but she loves the Masseur (very well played by newcomer Rahul Khanna). Ms. Mehta wants to show us all the bad aspects of human nature in the Indian subcontinent, an entire trainload of Muslims butchered, talk of rape between little children, untouchables, conversion, religious bigotry, child marriage, husband worship (the Parsee wife taking off husband's shoes and then getting close, very close to his feet - do the Parsees have a thing about revering by touching feet too?) etc. But in the end she does not manage to touch my heart because of these sidelines of dramatic moments. The movie comes across as unduly sensationalist and dramatic.
What redeems the film to a great extent is the excellent camera work, the divine music nd above all some great performances. This is some of Aamir's finest work (barring a few moments of insanity as a fakir) he is able to portray the dark character well. A little more expression of conflict as he turns from friend to enemy would have made this an exceptional performance. The new comer Rahul Khanna has a less complex role and does a wonderful job. Nandita Das in luminous, vulnerable, lovable. But the movie belongs to Maia Sethna - her Lenny is magical - child, adult, mixed-up, confused and every bit of it excellent.
Earth tries but cannot achieve what Garam Hawa was able to do - it makes a statement of sorts but does not touch the emotions.
What redeems the film to a great extent is the excellent camera work, the divine music nd above all some great performances. This is some of Aamir's finest work (barring a few moments of insanity as a fakir) he is able to portray the dark character well. A little more expression of conflict as he turns from friend to enemy would have made this an exceptional performance. The new comer Rahul Khanna has a less complex role and does a wonderful job. Nandita Das in luminous, vulnerable, lovable. But the movie belongs to Maia Sethna - her Lenny is magical - child, adult, mixed-up, confused and every bit of it excellent.
Earth tries but cannot achieve what Garam Hawa was able to do - it makes a statement of sorts but does not touch the emotions.