From The Hindu MetroPlus
Thursday, February 27, 2003
NO HEAT, NO DUST, A CHARMER IN CUSTODY

ZIYA US SALAM speaks to Ismail Merchant who undertakes a literary journey from Bombay to Hollywood in "My Passage from India," releasing in New Delhi this week. A beguiling film-maker, an honest writer...

THIS MAN is nothing if not a charmer. "It is all natural, inborn. You cannot acquire charm, you can only acquire manners," he says. Considering guile often comes wrapped with this charm, he has an absolutely devastating concoction. You know that you are being sold a tale, yet you love it, you rejoice in it. And that exactly is his craft - telling tales. And he has been doing it better than most others. Thus even as producers, directors, actors and others have emerged from anonymity, enjoyed their clichéd 15 minutes of fame and resumed their place on the sidelines, Ismail Merchant, the one half of Merchant Ivory Productions, goes on unabated, much like a river in spate. He has been like this ever since he was born. Or can remember.

Remember he can! He has a memory that refuses to play pranks, makes computers appear a dispensable luxury and maintaining diary a redundant exercise. "Yes, I remember everything from my childhood. For the first year or so - after reaching New York on August 11, 1958 - I maintained a diary but not after that. I have a photographic memory. Most of the incidents in the book are pure memorabilia," he says referring to "My Passage From India" which is hitting the bookstores in New Delhi this week.

Scarcely a surprise then that the first words in this literary exercise published by Roli Books are: "I can remember the exact moment when I knew that I wanted to spend my life in the world of movies. I was thirteen years old then and had been invited by Nimmi, one of the upcoming stars in the Bombay film industry, to accompany her to the premiere of her first film, 'Barsaat.'

"The obsession of making a film was always playing on my mind. When I reached America, it was to make international films. I wanted to make international films on my terms. I found that over there films were treated in an independent way and found my way across to people who shared my passion for films."

Again his contention is buttressed with a vivid anecdote of his meeting with James Ivory. "One evening forty years ago, James Ivory and I sat in a coffee shop, the Right Bank on Madison Avenue in New York, and discussed the idea of making Indian-themed films for an international audience," writes Merchant in the book. "Recently I was told that a plaque would be erected on the site to mark the place where the Merchant-Ivory partnership began." The partnership - along with Ruth Prawer Jhabvala - resulted in more than 40 ventures together, some successful in execution, others in conception.

Yet, it was not always so easy. The early years were a mix of the modern and the orthodox. On the one hand, he was regular in offering prayers at the Ajmer Dargah - to this day he is a khadim there, buying baskets of roses, giving alms to the poor. On the other, this St. Joseph's School product went to the Turf Club with his father who was a passionate enthusiast of the sport.

Little wonder, Merchant asks: "Does religion prohibit you from doing any good thing? As an individual you can do an act of piety. I pray once a day in the morning though my father used to pray five times a day. I thank God. It's an individual who carries out His mission. For the mission to be accomplished, one has to understand self. For understanding self one has to understand people."

Well, the mission took this lover of kababs and iftari - and films - to America to realise his dreams. Starting out as a guide in New York when he was "entirely ignorant," he charmed his way through to Paul Newman as a fan. And later he was to work with him in "Mr and Mrs Bridge." Again, it was scripted by Jhabvala.

Well, Merchant has crossed many a bridge since. And this book with 75 photographs gives a vivid account. The words are simple, yet engaging.