Heat And Dust

 "Receiving a rare showing" (Radio Times reviewer) last Wednesday on Film4 was "Heat and Dust", the culmination of Merchant-Ivory's India-set films. Merchant-Ivory Productions is now associated with a particular kind of period drama centred on the works of E.M. Forster and Henry James, but the partnership made their first real money from productions largely financed by major studios who, at that time of strict Indian currency controls, could not repatriate their rupee profits. Clearly production costs were lower in addition. One cannot imagine the big set-piece banquets, processions etc. of "Heat and Dust" being shot these days except perhaps for the guaranteed box-office of a Bond movie. It was also beautifully photographed. It was not surface glitz, though, a criticism which has stuck to later Merchant-Ivory films. The themes of colonialism, of convention - both Indian and British - and the interplay between them dominate the film.

Any production which boasts both Greta Scacchi and Julie Christie has a head-start, but the whole thing was perfectly cast. The cutting between the two time periods (1921 and 1982)  was clear, unlike some more modern movies. I did find certain passages within the same time-frames too episodic, but I accept that is a matter of personal taste. More pertinent, perhaps, is the character played by Nickolas Grace, who links the two periods, does not seem to have aged the requisite 60 years.

Sadly, the 1982 segment, originally a modern contrast with the fractious relationship between Indians and British, also appears as a period piece now. Anne (Julie Christie) relates how a tomb built in the past by a Nawab, a Muslim, is now treated as "sacred by both Hindus and Muslims", who jointly participate in an annual festival at the shrine. One wonders if those days will return to a country now in thrall to Hindu nationalism.