Film Review of Earth
Year: 1998 Reviewer: Chris Docker
Very under-promoted award-winning film set in the partition of India, which probably taught me more about that country than several visits have. Striving hard to be impartial, controversial director Deepa Metha has put together a movie rich both rich in qualities prized in the West as well as in Bollywood. The love triangle shows one of the main characters rising above the religious differences as the film progresses from warm, middle class light-heartedness through the brutality of partition in 1947. Acting and cinematography throughout are superb, especially one beautiful love scene where the sexual act is an outpouring of the integrity of the man and a recognition of his "rising above the animal" by his lover. Symbolic of the hope that one day might bring the hostility between Pakistan and India to an end, the characters show the highest spiritual aspiration, in sharp contrast to the scenes of mindless bloodshed, as friends turn against friends. One of the best movies to reach the cinemas this year.
Rating: 9/10
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