The Main Themes in The Movie Earth: 1947

The movie Earth: 1947 is viewed from a child’s perspective to show the innocence of children who were surrounded by violence at this time. The main characters of this movie are Lenny, Shanta, Dil and Hassan. The movie is seen through Lenny’s point of view, as she spends day to days with her Hindu nanny, Shanta. Shanta is in love with Hassan, who is Muslim. Meanwhile she comes to like Dil, who is in love with her. Shanta eventually chooses Hassan over Dil.

Hassan become so in love of Shanta that he agrees to switch faiths, Muslim to Hindu, to be able to take her to India safely. While this love triangle is taking action, the fight between Hindus and Muslims is taking place. From small attacks like shattering windows, to big ones like dismemberment, this fight was very crucial and harsh on each side. The climax of the the film is when Dil proposes to Shanta, and she says no.

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He then goes to pick up his sister at the train station only to see that every passenger is slaughtered. At this point, Dil is distraught after witnessing this. He decides to turn against his Hindu friends and compatriots. Dil later admits to the group that he has thrown grenades into some Hindu houses of people he has known for so long, and this scares Shanta.

Another most devastating part, is when Lenny is walking down the street and sees someone wrapped up. This person turns out to be Hassan, leaving Shanta mournful.

Muslims then arrive and demand that all Hindus be turned in or killed, causing Shanta to hide. Lenny then tells Dil where she is hiding, later realizing what a big mistake it was. Shanta is thrown into a cart and never seen again. This movie is relatable to the White Man’s Burden. “Take up the White Man's burden/Send forth the best ye breed/Go bind your sons to exile/To serve your captives' need”. What makes this movie relatable is the outlook. One religion feels they are more superior than the other, just like in the poem where one race believes they are more superior than another. This movie gives the audience a chance to see the darker side of civilization at this time. It is important to know and recall this horrific event because history could easily repeat itself at any moment.

Today’s society is learning to becoming more understanding of each other’s race, religion, and what not, but they also still struggle with being highly opinionated and outspoken. Being this way could lead to similar events like the Hindus and Muslims went through. This film speaks to people of the 1990s by showing them just a brief amount of the great horror and atrocities their families may have been through. A younger audience would find this movie to be somewhat relatable, due to the approach of throwing in a young romance but still trying to tie in the gruesome reality that lies in front of them.

The movie also caters to a mature audience by vaguely showing some of the dismemberment and gruesome things that had happen at this time. It even could make an audience member question religion in itself. The director could have done more focus on Lenny’s experiences and less on the romance of Shanta and Hassan. The director did a very good job of making sure that the characters were not totally biased to their religions.