My Passage from India Hardback - 2002

by Merchant, Ismail

Ismail Merchant is known for the extraordinary films he's produced with the American director James Ivory, among them A Room with a View, Howards End, and Remains of the Day. But when he's not making these lush, expensive costume dramas, he's making movies in his native India. In My Passage from India he takes us on a guided tour of how a middle-class Muslim named Noormohamed Abdul Rehman became an internationally acclaimed producer with a string of award-winning films to his credit.

My Passage from India is a fascinating look at the Bombay film industry-called Bollywood-from the 1950s through today, and how Holly- and Bollywood have intersected through Merchant's film career. Merchant amusingly recounts how his passion for movies was born in the streets of Bombay. He details his precocious wanderings from London to New York, where he first encountered his lifetime collaborator, James Ivory, and raised money for his first short film, and ultimately to Hollywood. Merchant lovingly recalls the circumstances of the movies he's shot in India, the Western stars he cast-and entertained-from James Mason to Jeanne Moreau to Vivien Leigh to Greta Scacchi, and the vast obstacles that his home country often presented-along with the movie magic that was the frequent result of his efforts.

With seventy-five photographs and a fabulous narrative, My Passage from India is a vivid memoir and colorful account of the lasting impact India has had on the thing Ismail Merchant does best: filmmaking.