A tragedy set against the ethnic violence of India's independence in 1947, the second film in Deepa Mehta's elemental India trilogy is even more incendiary than her controversial Fire . Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, and Parsees alike buzz like bees around the lovely flower Shanta (Nandita Das), the Hindu nanny of sheltered 8-year-old Parsee girl Lenny-baby. This sunny Eden of racial harmony plunges into darkness when independence brings the partition of the empire and sets … mehrethnic groups against one another in civil war. As seen through the naive eyes of little Lenny-baby, Earth is more tragic melodrama than social history, but what Mehta's adaptation of Bapsi Sidhwa's autobiographical novel Cracking India lacks in insight, it makes up for in fiery imagery, emotional passion, and a heavy-hearted longing for the paradise lost. --Sean Axmaker weniger