Deepa Mehta: 1947 Earth(1999)

EARTH (1999): 

THE TRAGEDY OF INDEPENDENCE

1947: Earth, the second movie in Deepa Mehta’s Elements-trilogy, is a tale of India being torn apart during the partition. It is set in what was about to become Pakistan. It is based on the book Ice Candy Man (Originally published as Cracking India) by Bapsi Sidhwa.

The affair of freedom and independence wasn’t an amicable occasion for the nation. 

Even with the association of liberty and newness to the event, the birth of a free nation was led by the tragic disunion of the land into India and Pakistan. The partition witnessed bloodshed and suffering on both frontiers. The true discomfort experienced by the common people who had always lived together harmoniously irrespective of their religious identities has been appropriately captured by Mehta. India might’ve awoken to freedom then, but the minds of people could never recover from the bigotry that contaminated the supposed “brotherhood” between the estranged nations and communities. 

“Hindustan had become free. Pakistan had become independent soon after its inception but man was still a slave in both these countries- slave of prejudice, slave of religious fanaticism, slave of barbarity and inhumanity.”- Saadat Hasan Manto

The story of Earth revolves around a group of adults caught between the cross-fire while the two self-governing nations emerged. The resentment and hyper fixation on the sense of community and religious identity ruined a lifelong friendship between these people belonging to different faiths. The account of this tragic affair of freedom has been narrated to us through the eyes of a ten-year-old Parsi-girl Lenny (played by Maia Sethna) who grew up in Lahore (now in Pakistan). The Parsis are descendants of the Persian Zoroastrians. They have a unique position in Indian history for being neutral and never taking sides in religious and political struggles. Even from a neutral and “safe” stance, the movie manages to offend both sides. It spares neither of the community nor holds one as morally superior to the other. Earth has multiple intimate storylines being explored through the eyes of Lenny. 

Even though Lenny’s family had a non-discriminatory and non-partisan view of the political unrest, the discomfort of this neutrality can be experienced by Lenny as she spends her days surrounded by a group of adults witnessing the growing tension between these people from different communities. Lenny is a brace-legged child and is looked after by a young-beautiful and caring Hindu nanny or aayah named Shanta (played by Nandita Das) who is admired by all men in their small group of friends. Shanta with glowing eyes and a gracious smile falls in love with Hasan, a masseur (played by Rahul Khanna), who is a charming, peacemaking, apolitical Muslim man. She also fancies (but doesn’t love) another Muslim man, Dil Nawaz, the “Ice Candy Man” (played Aamir Khan). Her life is pleasant in a wealthy Parsi household. The group of friends meet and talk in the nearby park, where Lenny witnesses the change in the dynamics of the group as the political unrest causes heated arguments between these adults, who previously seemed above all the hatred that had infiltrated their respective communities. Lenny quietly sits and listens to the casual remarks with undertones of bigotry and communalism. The hatred that had slowly started to take over the previously peaceful multifaith group was too much for a ten-year-old to comprehend. To be fair, observing the horrors of partition, grasping the gravity of the events that took place, the lynchings, the violence, and the agony of the people being displaced through the eyes of confused ten-year-old leaves us with a tragic but disappointing impression. 

As the story develops Shanta becomes the vantage point for Lenny, and even amidst the disruption, the violence, and confusion, Deepa Mehta manages to keep the emotional depth and personal storylines of these people intact even beyond the political overtones. Through Lenny’s eyes, we witness Shanta, the confident young woman exploring her feelings for Hasan.

Shanta’s growing intimacy with Hasan leaves the Ice-candy Man with envy and bitterness. 

Dil Nawaz, the Ice-candy Man, a charming and funny man who played on and laughed at the superstitions of people, is a portrayal of all those people who managed to remain sane and reasonable for the longest time when religion took over everyone else’s minds and how one incident, could throw them in a fit of rage and cause a turmoil within them.

“Fear is making people do crazy things.”

Delhi’s twin-city Lahore that once echoed with the tune of friendship became the place where hatred and contempt after its partition from the Indian Territory.

As the dispute over Lahore grew and Pakistan-India started to exchange population, Dil Nawaz witnessed the massacre of passengers who had been traveling in a train from Gurdaspur to Lahore, he found two of his sisters to have become the victims of rape and brutal killing in a train compartment overflowing with corpses. The bloodstains everywhere and the trauma of the people who witnessed these riots was a horrific incident that changed Dil Nawaz for the worse. His resentment for his fellow Hindu as well as Sikh friends grew and eventually filled him with fear and the need for revenge possessed him.

As the violence escalated, the neutrality of the Parsi household too was disturbed and Shanta’s safety was jeopardized. Following the massacre, the streets now echoed with sounds of rioters from both sides and arsonists stoking fires with gasoline and burning down localities. 

As Shanta contemplated leaving Lahore, the masseur, Hassan promises to switch his faith and become a Hindu to ensure her safety, they vow to run away together. 

The discontent, jealousy, and hatred that had transformed Dil Nawaz, eventually put a melodramatic and tragic end to Shanta and Hassan’s Love story. Being a significant part of the Anti-Hindu wave that took place in the predominantly Muslim-Lahore, Dil Nawaz became a threat to every non-muslim in the group. People changed religion under duress, Hari became Himmat Ali, the cleaner from subaltern caste became a Christian man named David Masih and at every instance, these people had to prove their identities to these supposed protectors of faith, the fanatical brigades whose humiliating actions send chills down your spine.

Ultimately, 1947:Earth leaves you with a bitter and uncomfortable realization that Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs, all were caught in the divisive nature of the state’s idea of Independence. They fought over and found differences that didn’t exist, to begin with. Even though the horrible and tragic events of the 1947-Partition can never be accurately recreated, but Earth leaves us with powerful images of how a civilization based on love for pluralist and “cultural” values can take a hit and crack under pressure. The idea of self-governance and liberty came at the cost of love being lost between communities, while the politicians of the time sold it as India’s biggest victory in History. The people and communities could never recover from the violence that had taken away the lives of millions of people, leaving the countries estranged, even today.