On a much more significant level, Dil’s kite-flying is tinged with competition and violence, as the two women alert him to the fact that his kite may be cut off by other kites. The age gap undermines her love for him, but – more important – it foregrounds the religious gap between Dil and his “two women,” a gap that will grow but wider as the movie progresses. The film begins with several peaceful, beautiful images – such as the scene where Dil teaches Shanta to fly a kite on a beautiful afternoon: Lenny watches on with great admiration for her hero, Dil, as he woos Shanta with his kite-flying abilities from high atop his apartment in the Sikh section of town.īut even such an innocent, pastoral scene as this one loaded with symbolism: on one level, it is very clear that – of the two women, Lenny and Shanta – young Lenny is clearly the only one truly smitten with Dil.

In many ways, Shanta’s body is the “earth” upon which most of the love-narrative is fought. She is a Hindu, loved by both Hasan the Masseur and by the multifaceted Dil Navaz – also known as “Ice Candy Man” to Lenny. The focal point (from a narrative and from a film point of view) of these discussions is young, beautiful Shanta – Lenny’s nanny. Seen through the beautiful, and certainly innocent, eyes of young Lenny-baby, Earth begins by engaging us emotionally: Lenny is the baby in an affluent Parsee family, which meets in the local park every week to discuss love, relationships, the rapidly-approaching partition, and religion is incorporated as well.

Patterns of resentment and resistance among these marginalized groups have led to a situation where, paradoxically, the national government is sustained by feelings and beliefs that are essentially anarchist in their view of government.ĭeepa Mehta directed (Cracking) Earth, taken from Bapsi Sidhwa’s novel, fifty years after the partition of India.Įarth is extremely contemporaneous, as it explores several relevant and pressing themes: the way in which violence is internalized the extraordinary power of maps (interior and psychological, particularly) – the way that they are etched not only on to lands but to bodies as well and the issues of partition and postcolonialism – understanding cultural divisions, framing politics and identities.Įarth celebrates its narrator’s eighth birthday at the same time as Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru triumphantly proclaims (by radio, as heard in the film) that “India will awake to light and freedom, at the stroke of the midnight hour.” India is a strong example of a developing nation where, because of resentment and resistance to the social impact of economic change, fundamentalism has been strongly fed as entire cultural and religious groups have become marginalized.

Cracking india by bapsi sidhwa summary