Earth (1998)

Director:

Deepa Mehta

Writers:

Deepa Mehta (writer)
Bapsi Sidhwa (novel)

Release Date:

7 July 1999 (Belgium)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

The movie opens in Lahore of 1947 before India and Pakistan became independent. It is a cosmopolitan city...

Plot Keywords:

Hindu | Muslim | India | Lahore | Friend

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Maia Sethna	...	Lenny Sethna
Nandita Das	...	Shanta, the Ayah
Kulbhushan Kharbanda	...	Imam Din
Babby Singh	...	Yousaf
Kitu Gidwani	...	Bunty Sethna
Raghuvir Yadav	...	Hariya / Himmat Ali
Kabir Chowdhury	...	Cousin Adi
Arif Zakaria	...	Rustom Sethna
Eric Peterson	...	Mr. Rogers (IG)
Gulshan Grover	...	Mr. Singh
Lauren Walker	...	Mrs. Rogers
Cinia Jain	...	Mrs. Singh
Rahul Khanna	...	Hassan, the Masseur
Navtej Singh Johar	...	Sher Singh
Pavan Malhotra	...	Butcher
Sunil Mehra	...	Toto Ramji
Aamir Khan	...	Dil Navaz, the Ice Candy Man
Roshan Banu	...	Papoo
Radhika Singh	...	Muchoo
Varun Mehta	...	Boy at bioscope
Mahesh Gahalot	...	Muslim father
Gatanjill Chopra	...	Muslim mother
Sahiba Chopra	...	Daughter
Sia Chopra	...	Daughter
Annabelle	...	Daughter (as Annabelle)
Sandeep Singh	...	Little Sikh boy
Rahul Ram	...	Young Sikh man
Ravinder Kumar	...	Young Muslim man
Veer Prakash Nayar	...	Papoo's groom
Babloo	...	Chotay (as Bablu)
Rajendra Kumar	...	Refugee police
Ashok Jain	...	Refugee police
Pradeep Kapoor	...	Station master
Javed Jaffrey	...	Radio announcer (as Jaaved Jaaferi)
Hussain	...	Muslim man quartered
Malani Ramani	...	Cousin Adi's mother
Arif	...	Refugee boy
Mohini Mathur	...	Sher Singh's mother
Mayura Baweja	...	Sher Singh's sister
Madhavendra	...	Mob leader
Mohammed Irshad	...	Moti
Sagar Zakhmi	...	Mob member
Avinash Nimeshswami	...	Mob member
Nagesh Salwan	...	Mob member
Adil Sheikh	...	Mob member
Anil Chandra Prakash	...	Mob member (as Anil Prakash)
Vinod Nahardi	...	Mob member
Bapsi Sidhwa	...	Older Lenny
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Shabana Azmi	...	Older Lenny (uncredited) (voice)

Directed by
Deepa Mehta

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Deepa Mehta		writer
Bapsi Sidhwa		novel "Cracking India"

Produced by
Sean Atkinson	....	post-production producer
David Hamilton	....	executive producer
Anne Masson	....	producer
Deepa Mehta	....	producer
Dilip Mehta	....	creative producer
Jhamu Sughand	....	executive producer

Original Music by
A.R. Rahman

Cinematography by
Giles Nuttgens

Film Editing by
Barry Farrell

Casting by
Uma Da Cunha

Production Design by
Aradhana Seth

Art Direction by
Aradhana Seth

Set Decoration by
Malavika Talukder

Costume Design by
Dolly Tewari		(as Dolly Ahluwalia Tewari)

Makeup Department
Bittoo	....	assistant makeup artist
Nicole Demers	....	makeup artist
Debra Henderson	....	hair stylist
Babita John	....	assistant hair stylist

Production Management
Iqbal Kidwai	....	unit manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Monsoon Bissell	....	third assistant director: cast
Dylan Gray	....	first assistant director (as D. Dylan Gray)
Rajendra Kumar	....	third assistant director: set (as Kumar Rajendra)
Péter Palátsik	....	second assistant director
Harveer Singh	....	third assistant director: extras

Art Department
Nitin Bhatt	....	set production assistant
Rammilan Chaubey	....	prop assistant (as Ram Milan Choubey)
Om Prakash Choubey	....	prop assistant
Mohammed Hafiz	....	prop assistant
Rumana Hamied	....	assistant set dresser
Dattu Kadam	....	carpenter
Yashwant S. Kamble	....	head painter (as Yeshwant S. Kamble)
Shefali Karamchandani	....	set production assistant
Narinder Nagar	....	property man
Shambu Nath	....	stand-by props
Vijay Parshuram	....	painter
Sumit Punjwani	....	property man
Koel Purie	....	set production assistant (as Koel Puri)
Pradip Redij	....	assistant art director
Mingi Rekbal	....	prop assistant
Arshad Sardar	....	art department assistant
Dilip Shah	....	art department assistant (as Anal Dilip Shah)
Ashok Sharma	....	art department electrician
Ayesha Sood	....	storekeeper
Ben Spencer	....	second assistant art director (as William Spencer)
Malavika Talukder	....	set dresser (as Malavika Talukdar)
Loveleen Tandan	....	set production assistant
Yogender Tyagi	....	assistant props master (as Yogender 'Munna' Tyagi)
Daulat Vaid	....	art department runner
Arun Venugopol	....	key set production assistant
Arjun Vishwakarma	....	carpenter
Lavajaree Vishwakarma	....	construction coordinator

Sound Department
Vince Agostini	....	foley recordist
Denis Blais	....	foley artist
Tim J. Carroll	....	stereo sound consultant: Dolby Stereo
Elius Caruso	....	sound re-recording mixer
Mike Donald	....	boom operator
Sebastian Godwin	....	second assistant sound
Ian Hopkins	....	assistant sound editor
Ian Hopkins	....	dialogue editor
Jim Hopkins	....	sound effects editor
Jim Hopkins	....	supervising sound editor
Cathy Hutton	....	dialogue editor
Richard Kelly	....	sound effects editor
Darcy Kite	....	sound re-recording mixer (as Darcey Kite)
Joan Parker	....	foley assistant
Graham Ross	....	sound mixer
Suleman Sheikh	....	additional boom operator
Dileep Subramanian	....	additional sound mixer (as Dileep Subramaniam)
Mark Zsifkovits	....	sound re-recording mixer

Special Effects by
Anthony Fernandez	....	special effects
Babu Meckwan	....	special effects

Visual Effects by
Alex Boothby	....	matte artist

Stunts
Allan Amin	....	stunt coordinator
Giru	....	stunt performer
Hussain	....	stunt performer
Ainouddin Sheikh	....	stunt performer (as Ino)

Camera and Electrical Department
G.R. Adam	....	assistant grip
Mohamud Ali	....	electrician
Gorakh S. Avadhi	....	generator assistant (as Gorakh Avad)
Balaram Dawande	....	electrician (as Balaram Dhavande)
Mulchand Dedhia	....	gaffer
Raghuvir Jadeja	....	electrician
Tukaram Joshi	....	electrician
Aleksander Kaufmann	....	first assistant camera (as Aleksander Kauffman)
Krishna Kumar	....	rigger
Punam Kumar	....	additional still photographer
Pappu Marwadi	....	electrician (as Pappu Marvadi)
Jeremy Mauger	....	additional dolly grip
Dilip Mehta	....	special still photographer
Sadruddin Jiva Mistry	....	generator operator (as Sadruddin J. Mistry)
Peter Myslowski	....	key grip
Ravindra Raokhande	....	electrician (as Ravinder Raokhande)
Kamlesh Sadrani	....	electrician
Priya Seth	....	third camera assistant
S.A. Siddiqui	....	electrician
Arjun Singh	....	spot boy
Kishan Tarva	....	generator assistant
Lorenzo Weiss	....	second assistant camera
William Wilfred	....	rigger (as Williams Wilfred)
Barkhat M. Zaria	....	electrician (as Barkat M. Zaria)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Poornima Inspector	....	first wardrobe assistant
Heera Lal	....	second wardrobe assistant
Mahinder	....	tailor
Narinder Singh	....	chief wardrobe assistant
Sunder	....	wardrobe runner
Yusuf	....	wardrobe supervisor

Editorial Department
Kelly Black	....	post-production coordinator
Jacqueline Carmody	....	first assistant picture editor
David Craven	....	post-production: UK
Barry Farrell	....	supervising editor
Leanne McCarthy	....	first assistant picture editor
Ricardo Olivero	....	color timer

Music Department
Asha Bhosle	....	playback singer (as Asha Bhonsle)
Hariharan	....	playback singer: "Dheemi Dheemi"
Sadhana Sargam	....	playback singer: "Banno Rani"
Sukhwinder Singh	....	playback singer: "Ruth Aa Gayee Re", "Raat Ki Daldal Hain" and "Yeh Jo Zindagi Hain"
Srinivas	....	playback singer: "Yeh Jo Zindagi Hain"
Sujata Trivedi	....	playback singer: "Yeh Jo Zindagi Hain"

Transportation Department
Jetinder Chaudhary	....	transportation assistant
Ravinder Malik	....	transportation coordinator

Other crew
Rajeev Acharya	....	production accountant
Ron Atkey	....	legal counsel: Toronto
Riju Bajaj	....	script assistant
Deborah Bhatlya	....	tutor
Nupu Chaudhuri	....	production coordinator
Sunil Chhabra	....	wrangler
Darryl Cornford	....	work print conformer
Sunil Gupta	....	unit doctor (as Dr. Sunil Gupta)
Stohn Henderson	....	legal counsel: Toronto
Arun Jetley	....	legal counsel: New Dehli
Heram Singh Kapasia	....	permissions liason
Islamuddin Khan	....	location assistant
Saif Kidwai	....	location assistant
Joan Kirby	....	production controller: Canada
Robert Kraus	....	title designer: opening titles
Sanjay Malik	....	additional unit manager
Paul Martin	....	production controller: India
Veena Mehta	....	dialogue coach: Rahul Khanna
Sharyu Mutreja	....	production secretary
Barbara O'Kelly	....	story editor
Ved Prasad	....	production runner
Ashish Puri	....	production runner
Nasreen Rehman	....	script translator (as Nasreen Rahman)
Shahdad Rohani	....	liaison officer: I & B
Daniela Saioni	....	script supervisor
Punam Sawhney	....	assistant to the coordinator
Rajiv Sawhney	....	legal counsel: New Dehli
Deanna Scriver	....	work print conformer
Shalini Sethi	....	assistant to director (as Shalani Sethi)
D.P. Singh	....	assistant to the coordinator
Mahavir Singh	....	assistant animal wrangler
Maninder Singh	....	legal counsel: New Dehli
Pervinder Singh	....	location assistant
Prathibha Singh	....	legal counsel: New Dehli
Vishal Sood	....	production consultant
Edwin Williams	....	unit location manager

Production Companies

• Cracking the Earth Films Inc.

Distributors

• New Yorker Films (USA) (video)
• G² (USA) (an MGM company)
• Madman Entertainment (2004) (Australia) (DVD)
• Shemaroo Video Pvt. Ltd. (1998) (worldwide) (DVD)
• Sony BMG Music Entertaintment (2007) (Germany)
• Zeitgeist Films (1999) (USA) (subtitled)

Other Companies

• ARRI Lighting Rental  lighting equipment
• ARRI Media  camera rental
• Bakshi Caterers, Delhi  catering
• Command Post Toybox  digital compositing
• DeLuxe Toronto  processing and prints
• DeLuxe Toronto  sound re-recording
• Film Opticals  titles and opticals
• Francont Film  negative cutting
• Multitrack Digital  sound post-production
• Smash Editorial  opening title and type design
• Smash Editorial  post-production picture

Also Known As:

1947: Earth (India: English title) (alternative title)
Terre (Canada: French title)

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

India | Canada

Language:

Hindi | English | Parsee | Punjabi | Urdu

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Canada:14A (Alberta) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Canada:PG (British Columbia) | India:A | Australia:MA | New Zealand:M | USA:Unrated | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia)

Filming Locations:

New Delhi, Delhi, India

Company:

Cracking the Earth Films Inc.

Trivia:

The film was banned in Pakistan for political reasons. In India, the censor board made six cuts, including the sex scene.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Water (2005/I)

Soundtrack:

Dheemi Dheemi

A very honest attempt without much fanfare

Deepa Mehta's second element, "Earth" clearly shows her maturity as a director. She has really worked on the overall aspects of film-making and make it more presentable to a wider audience, as compared to "Fire". Like music, for instance. A R Rahman is clearly the best performer in this film with excellent scores like "Rut aa gayi re" and "Banno".

I felt, this film mainly focuses on the character of Dil Navaz (brilliantly enacted by Aamir Khan) ... a person who turns from a cheerful, romantic and simple common man to a person who becomes violent and villanious in his hatred for a sect of people. The 1947 partition riots is an example of a social upheaval that can trigger such a change in a person. As the character says, we all have a lion encaged within us and the day the cage breaks open, God only can save us from the aftermath.

Aamir Khan is astonishing in his performance. He is gaining considerable mileage as a class actor ( a rarity in Hindi commercial film industry ) because of his recent pick of movies and definitely "Earth" marks a high point in his career graph. The different shades of emotion Dil Navaz undergoes through the film are effectively communicated through his face, articulation and body language. The climax scene is particularly memorable. Nandita Das and Rahul Khanna have given able support. The little girl Maia Sethna as "lenny" is also very promising. The direction has been very controlled and Deepa handles the events beautifully with excellent cinematographic support.

To sum it up, Earth offers an excellent viewing experience to all and makes the audience really "feel" for the victims ( both physical and mental ) of such events in World history as the India-Pakistan partition.