As a film, I found Earth by Deepa Mehta to be on average a mediocre bit of storytelling. On first viewing, I could understand why Zarminae Ansariy found it so unforgettable in their review. If you aren’t looking for any depth into the motives of the characters and only look upon it as a dramatic way to kill time, you will find it breathtaking in its simplicity. When Lenny witnesses a man dismembered in the streets, she re-enacts it upon one of her dolls at home. Her tears after Cousin Adi asks “why are you so mean if you can’t stand it?” only emphasizes the devastation witnessed all around her. However, this one moment cannot save the lack of depth in the rest of the film. For that, I primarily agree with reviewer C.J.S. Wallia.
Deepa Mehta’s script lacks one crucial element - believability. These people act this way because that is the way history tells us they should, and as such, they will be stereotypical portrayals so there will be no confusion. We will have a group of friends from every major religion discuss and debate the war taking place around them. We will have them scream at each other, attack each other, and eventually kill each other, but we will not give any reasons as to why. The script attempts to give us a little depth every once in a while, but it comes across more as a surface skimming, like a rock skipping across a pond. We see splashes here and there, but for the most part the surface is smooth.
While the majority of the film is given, and narrated, from the viewpoint of a small eight year old girl named Lenny, there are times where she is nowhere in sight for her viewpoint to exist, such as when Ice-Candy Man is waiting for his sisters to come on the train, or the Masseur’s visit to the Shikh. How could this film show the memory of someone when they were never there to experience it in the first place? Is this memoir supposed to be her romanticized version of events?
Earth is meant to be a film of romance and melodrama on one level, and a pseudo-documentary on another. There is no doubting the history shown within this 101 minute film. The dividing of India into the countries of India and Pakistan did happen. The riots between the Hindu and Muslim faiths did escalate into murders. Friends and families were split apart. Homes were fled for safer climates. However, as a film Earth was lacking. Until the perspective started to change, there was no real depth to the film, and even then the motives and reasonings behind some characters decisions made little sense. When it ended upon an adult Lenny finishing off her memories in a cemetery, it was startling. Who is this woman? Why is she here? Oh, are we back to that?
Humph.
We were better off without her.
This submission suggests an alignment with C.J.S. Wallia’s review of the movie, in which he criticizes every aspect of the film’s construction and its interpretation of historical events. It would appear that such an alignment would be precarious, as he suggests, “Mehta’s film viciously distorts the historical role of the Sikhs’ to the extent that they “initiated the riots”. Thus, it would appear that his opinion is biased.
ReplyDeleteIn “Unforgettable”, Zarminae Ansari writes that Bapsi Sidhwa, who appears in the film’s final scene, selected to structure her novel, Cracking India, around Lenny’s family, as the Parsis “have a unique position in Indian history for being neutral, not taking sides in religious struggles”. Additionally, Ansari notes that “this is a story of a child’s confusion about the partition, which embodies the confusion of millions who are affected by it”. Interestingly, Ansari notes that Mehta’s film will “undoubtedly offend both sides, since it spares neither, not holds one as morally superior to the other”. Perhaps, this is the crux of the film; the provision of a venue where the audience can see all perspectives and the ensuing results.
I think I had more of a problem with the story telling aspect of it than the religious/historical one. Does that make me a follower of both reviewers?
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about Lenny as a narrator, and I, too, was irked to see her as an old broad, trawling through a cemetery. It was just too much. I did like the film, though, especially after suffering through Before the Rain.
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