A LETTERED SOUL: REFLECTIONS ON LITERATURE, CINEMA AND CULTURE .

A MEMORY OF A LIFETIME : on THE REMAINS OF THE DAY (1993)

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As of today, Indian producer Ismail Merchant and American director- screenwriter James Ivory have raised their cumulative artistry to eternal heights of cinematic collaboration, adorning a global filmography much before the term 'global' translated to an eminent reality of our times. With unique and distinctive tales set in a post Independence India, films like THE HOUSEHOLDER, SHAKESPEAREWALLAH, BOMBAY TALKIE, HEAT AND DUST and IN CUSTODY among several others, gave credence to the beginning of a globe traversing medium of storytelling that was incomplete without the expertise of writer Ruth Prabher Jhabwala. Her screenwriting credits became synonymous with the famed Merchant- Ivory trademark.

Together, they brought an elegant, pithy, observant timelessness to the cinematic idiom with such works as HOWARDS END, A ROOM WITH A VIEW and A SOLDIER'S DAUGHTER NEVER CRIES to name a few. Their partnership is so impactful and definitive then that it can never become a relic of the past even as their storied narratives celebrating the power of memories and recreated yesteryears culled from novels and real time accounts justify their eye for details and human behaviour through the annals of time. I write about them because any of their feature films will be nullified of a presence per se without speaking of them as the collective soul of creative vision.

Mr. Ivory, on his part, has added further kudos to his long lasting legacy by recently bagging a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for the exquisite CALL ME BY YOUR NAME.

THE REMAINS OF THE DAY, based on Kazuo Ishiguro's novel, is one of the great exemplars borne out of this trio's passion for period tales and memorable character studies, whether it's of a nation, class structures or inherently decent individuals stifled by pre-ordained social mores. The title attests to the past where a present continuum was binding on all individuals. Now that I have watched it, I feel it will hold a special place in my heart for the longest time. Temporal distinctiveness doesn't define it. The narrative is beautifully constructed to instill a sense of of humanity in an often fraught world, sort of like an inside look at personalities from within the site of a transformative era.

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Set in the Darlington estate, a storied mansion belonging to the aristocratic Lord Darlington (James Fox), it is about the sense of compassion, trust, respect and interdependence between the master and his coterie of faithful servers that includes the eternally faithful head butler Mr. Stevens (Anthony Hopkins) whose aged father (Peter Vaughan) himself has been in the line of domestic duties for a whole lifetime. Mr. Stevens impeccably manages the household and the generational ideal of serving the upper echelon's every need is part of his psychological make up, an unbroken trail which he is glad to contribute to with firm discipline and gentility. The adaptation here keeps it as a close knit unit that runs this important site in the English countryside at a time of great social churning, that is in an epoch when signs of a second World War were being broadcast on the horizon and the personal became political as Lord Darlington used his estate to host meritorious individuals of great intellect to determine England's role in the times to come. There is no vulgate or obvious display of power wrestling either by the soft spoken and utterly gentlemanly Lord Darlington or by those who manage the household. There is a meeting of the twain in terms of common civility even though distance and dispassionate tempers rule the roost and Lord Darlington's own ideologies may be open to doubt. An unquestioning strain of loyalty runs through the people and their carefully regimented inheritances of behaviour.