Grimossfer
Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%
SanEat
A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."
Sarita Rafferty
There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
braddugg
Totally Unexpected.I did not expect many things in the way they were unfolded and that's the beauty of this movie.The story is about partition but no big politics involved. Lahore no big cities involved. Rather it's a tale of a choice between lust and love. It a view point of a small parsi girl.There are very little commercial elements and the music of A R Rahman just adds to the visuals and the way they unfold I repeat is what is wonderful.It's not spectacular and I didn't get a wow while viewing but its engrossing and so engrossing that I didn't even realize till the tears strolled from eyes and touched my lips.It's a must watch if one can take in the surprise of seeing a movie that actually does not have a typical beginning or end and anything.Aamir Khan Rocks and Nandita Das is wonderful. But the best is from a kid Maia Sethna as Lenny Baby.Rating : 4/5
s-kapoor
Having seen a few of Deepa Mehta's movies recently this movie was certainly a powerful story and was well filmed. But there seems to be a quality about Mehta's movies which seem to be so cerebral that they detract from the emotive intensity of what is India.The stories she finds are so compelling and yet I believe that the movie-making and acting are not stitched together as well. Take away the historical setting and it seems to collapse not because you removed one critical element, but because it is the only substantive element.I can see why people enjoyed this movie, but I wish there was more. I wish she had dealt more deeply with the group of friends and the tension between their own religious differences. It was more about the partition happening around and I believe Ms. Mehta might have let slip an opportunity to have made the whole tale far more poignant. The setting of the Parsee family's nanny seemed to have very little relevance in the story - the professed Parsee inclination to side with whoever is in power does not contribute to the story.Instead it is a potent spectacle as one watches from the outside, but there is no overt invitation or quiet pull-in to the movie.
Aam Aadmi
Having seen this few years ago, the first thought was what it had to do with the India-Pakistan partition in 1947. The film neither shed light on the actual circumstances involved nor addressed the social, economic or political ramifications of the massive uprooting of Northwest India into two separate nations.The partition was not about one family, it was about thousands. Nothing in the movie even tries to address this basic fact. Unknown multitudes were left behind. Many lost everything in the shuffle. The politics of why it happened has been brushed aside as inconsequential, when that in fact is why the *historical account* is so riveting. Six decades later, the two countries are still divided over those political and religious issues, ready to go to war at a moment's notice. That this needed to be pointed out shows how out-of-context the movie really is. And then she goes and calls it 'Earth'! Get off your high horse, woman.Mehta is a film-maker who makes stuff for Western consumption. That is fine but she should refrain from taking liberties with Indian/Pakistani audiences who went through the "horror-show" and survived to tell their stories. Mehta should have watched the Hindi TV serial Buniyaad to get SOME clue. Useless side elements filled up the lack of narrative in the film. The characters are totally unempathic and one fails to connect to anyone except the little girl. And what can one say about the direction or technical side of Mehta's "human-interest piece"? Not much.And if this really was Lenny's story, why muddle it all up with a hare-brained depiction of such a monumental calamity??? If you can only deal with a serious subject with the passing curiosity of an outsider, and have no maturity or emotional depth when interpreting its impact on an entire sub-continent, WHY BOTHER TO DELVE INTO IT AT ALL??
Abhishek Saha
Earth is one of those movies that, despite not being a masterpiece, still manages to 'affect' you in a deep, almost undefinable way. There is something harrowingly beautiful about this intense story of love and betrayal set in the backdrop of the partition of India.Based on Bapsi Sidhwa's novel, 'Cracking India', Earth tells the story of the partitioning of India seen through the eyes of a eight year old girl. Yet Earth is best viewed not as a historical drama, nor a political fable. Certainly the historical elements are there-the communal violence, the British snobbery, the flight across the border for the millions who were rendered homeless by the events of 1947. But above and beyond that Earth is a story about love and the destruction of innocence. Too many movies that depict historical events either err on the side of showing too much historical detail or relegate the history to a mere footnote. Earth steers clear of being a movie about the events of partition; rather, by concentrating on its effects upon a small group of friends and how it affects their friendships and relationships, it shows the soul of partition.Earth is shattering, stunning...and eerily beautiful. There are jarring moments, like ones that stretch symbolisms too far, yet they pale in comparison to the beauty that Deepa Mehta portrays.Earth takes you on a ride of tenderness, poignancy, shock and ultimately leaves you with a feeling of numbness. The climax, especially, contains an emotional punch as powerful as any I have witnessed. All the actors give excellent performances, especially Aamir Khan, the 'ice-candy man', who is astonishing in the last scene. And the music by A.R. Rehman is wonderful, even by his lofty standards.
