Ismail Merchant

1936 - 2005

by Gayathri Varma

Ismail Merchant, the one half of the famous Merchant Ivory duo passed away yesterday in his London home. As a part of a very high profile career, making films such as A Room with a View, Howards End, Mystic Masseur Surviving Picasso, and Cotten Mary. Gayathri Varma, who had known him pays her homage.


Yesterday was a sad day. The world cinema has lost Ismail Merchant. At this sad moment, I thought I would write a bit about some personal encounters with the great man.

My brother, Suraj had the good fortune of working with Ismail Merchant in two of his films, Cotton Mary and Mystic Massuer (adaptation of VS Naipaul’s book by the same name) as his 2nd Assistant Director. Our family still cherishes some unforgettable memories of Ismail Merchant from our association with him during the making of Cotton Mary at Cochin. Certain sections of the audio for Cotton Mary was recorded at our ancestral home in Cochin.

Ismail Merchant was a warm, spontaneous, vivacious, intelligent person. Yet he was extremely down to earth. His sense of humor and love for life was legendary. He had an enormous passion for cooking. During the shoots, if you don’t find him anywhere, you can safely go look up in the kitchen and you will find him cooking a meal for the crew. And he always made it a point to eat with them too. When my brother invited him for his wedding two years back, he answered with his trademark wit, "I will attend, only if you let me cook for the occasion."

There is so much more to the man we will never know, now that he is no more. Strangely, in India, the media coverage appears quite luke-warm considering that Merchant put India in the world map of International Cinema and the films made by the Merchant-Ivory duo were internationally acclaimed, won six Academy awards and a staggering 21 nominations. And for some who didn’t know, Merchant actively lobbied in the Academy and managed to win a long overdue Oscar for Satyajit Ray.

Those who love aesthetics in cinema will miss Ismail Merchant, most acutely the likes of James Ivory, Shashi Kapoor, Ruth Prawer Jhabhwala, Madhur Jaffrey and in a small, yet significant way by people like my brother, whose lives he touched in an earnest, memorable way.