Lenny is cared for by a beautiful Hindu nanny (''Fire'''s exquisite Nandita Das), whose two most ardent suitors, Muslims both, react very differently to the escalating violence: One, after witnessing family members hideously butchered, moves from tolerance to militancy; the other offers to sacrifice identity as an act of love. Throughout, Lenny's young eyes, wide with naïveté, represent those of the audience, dismayed by the depth and ferocity of divisiveness.
Adapting Bapsi Sidhwa's autobiographical novel, ''Cracking India,'' Mehta saturates ''Earth'' with rich textures and colors. Even blood, spilled so freely, has a distinctive intensity of red in this beautiful and harrowing film.
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