The credit starts with the background of the Theme Music composed by A R Rahman , the music is very mixed melodious yet giving that ’’butterflies in your stomach’’ feel , very eerie. 1947 - Earth is directed by Ace Director Deepa Mehta , It has some fabulous music composed by A R Rahman , though in some parts you feel that the music dosent appeal to that era. Javed Saheb has come up with some great lyrics, which give a special feel to all the songs. He manages to extract happiness, sadness, fear , anxiety through his https://lyrics. All the songs, especially Ruth Aa Gayi re, Dheemi Dheemi and Raat ki Daldal are very good.
Deepa is famous for her movies especially Fire , and she continues to cast the svelte dusky and immensely talented Nandita Das , along with Rahul Khanna and Aamir Khan. This Film is an adaptation of the Novel ’’Ice Candyman’’ by Bapsi Sidhwa . The film is like an autobiography with a story of a Handicapped Parsi girl and the people around her in the backdrop of the Partition. The beauty of this film is the starkness and reality shown in the movie. It makes us deal with some bitter facts. The treatment of the songs is very intelligent , it blends along with the movie not marring its flow.
The movie shows how a group of friends ( Nandita, Aamir, Rahul , Raghubir yadav to name some) react to the partition. The first half of the movie is very light hearted with some lively moments like Aamir Khan selling a bird to the foreigner. He has carried his role with aplomb, I particularly like the look Aamir gives to Nandita and remarks ’’ Husn ki Chakki Chali , ek daana phas gaya , tum phase to kya phase dilnawaz saara zamana phas gaya’’ .He plays Dil Nawaz the Ice Candy man, he along with the Maalish Wala ( Rahul Khanna) fall in love with Shanta bai ( Nandita) , but Nandita prefers Rahul.
The scene changes when , during the partition an entire train full of muslims from India are massacred by Hindus and Aamir’s Sisters happen to be in the Train .The transformation from a lively person to a person full of hatred is remarkable , u can feel the anger in his eyes !!! Thereafter what follows is a gory description of the partition wherein in the end Aamir helps a group of Muslim fanatics to find a hapless nandita , whose love Rahul has already been massacred. The scene in which nandita is pulled and dragged by the group in a Tanga leaves you very disturbed. Another disturbing scene is when a pre pubescent girl is married off with an ugly old man.
Though this movie was not successful , Deepa shows how good she is as a director. Its handled very simply. The narrative though moves slowly is gripping. Maaia Sethna who plays the Parsi girl is first rate , with Aamir and Nandita with power packed performances. They are ably supported by Gulshan Grover , Kitoo Gidwani & Raghubir Yadav. Rahul Khanna needs to work hard on his Hindi, he is ok.
This is not a kind of movie to see with a popcorn packet !!! It’s a very intense and thought provoking movie, though it leaves a bad taste in your mind one must see the movie.