| 1947 Earth | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Deepa Mehta |
| Story by | Deepa Mehta |
| Based on | Cracking India byBapsi Sidhwa |
| Produced by | Anne Masson Deepa Mehta |
| Starring | Aamir Khan Rahul Khanna Nandita Das Maia Sethna |
| Narrated by | Shabana Azmi |
| Cinematography | Giles Nuttgens |
| Edited by | Barry Farrell |
| Music by | A. R. Rahman |
Release dates | 11 September 1998 (Canada)
|
Running time | 101 minutes |
| Countries |
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| Language | Hindi |
Earth (released in India as1947: Earth) is a 1999 Indo-Canadianperiodromancedrama film directed byDeepa Mehta. It is based uponBapsi Sidhwa's novel,Cracking India (1991, US; 1992, India; originally published asIce Candy Man, 1988, UK), set during the 1947partition of India.Earth is the second instalment of Mehta'sElements trilogy, preceded byFire (1996) and followed byWater (2005). It was India's entry for the 1999Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
The story is set inLahore (now the capital ofPakistani Punjab) in the period directly before and during thepartition of India in 1947 at the time ofIndian independence.
A young girl withpolio, Lenny, narrates the story through the voice of her adult self. She is from a wealthyParsi family who hope to remain neutral to the rising tensions betweenHindus,Sikhs, andMuslims in the area. She is adored and protected by her parents, Bunty and Rustom, and cared for by herAyah, named Shanta. Both Dil Navaz, the Ice-Candy Man, and Hassan, the Masseur are in love with Shanta. Shanta, Dil, and Hassan are part of a small group of friends from different faiths (some of whom work for Lenny's family) who spend their days together in the park. With partition, however, this once unified group of friends becomes divided and tragedy ensues.
The film holds an 86% rating onRotten Tomatoes based on 35 reviews.[2]Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and states thatEarth "is effective because it doesn't require much history from its viewers, explains what needs to be known, and has a universal message".[3]The New York Times described it as "a powerful and disturbing reminder of how a civilization can suddenly crack under certain pressures".[4]The New Yorker argues that "Deepa Mehta handles her material convincingly, and the cast is so likable that they wear the larger themes like beautiful garments".[5]Rediff.com notes that "Aamir Khan has probably given the best performance of his life. It is hard to imagine another actor bringing alive the nuances of the ice-candy man the way he does".[6]
All lyrics are written byJaved Akhtar; all music is composed byA. R. Rahman.
| No. | Title | Singer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Ruth Aa Gayee Re" | Sukhwinder Singh | 5:31 |
| 2. | "Banno Rani" | Sadhana Sargam | 4:09 |
| 3. | "Ishwar Allah" | Anuradha Sriram,Sujatha Mohan | 5:15 |
| 4. | "Dheemi Dheemi" | Hariharan | 5:16 |
| 5. | "Raat Ki Daldal Hain" | Sukhwinder Singh | 4:05 |
| 6. | "Yeh Jo Zindagi Hain" | Srinivas, Sujata Trivedi | 4:51 |
| 7. | "Yeh Jo Zindagi Hain" | Srinivas,Sukhwinder Singh | 4:07 |
| 8. | "Piano Theme" (Instrumental) | 1:53 | |
| 9. | "Theme Music" (Instrumental) | 4:50 |
