Letter from Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, to James Ivory, New York, New York, 1970 December 31 : autograph manuscript signed.

Playfully pointing out the the pre-paid enelope she sent the letter in and asking Ivory to let her know if it arrives safely; reporting on the box office failure of Raj Kapoor's "Mera Naam Joker" and quoting liberally from Amrita Malik's review, pointing out especially Malik's claim that "The nostalgia [evoked by the film] will linger with us for ever like that of 'Jim Ivory's Shakespeare Wallah'"; asking "How do you like being compared with Raj Kapoor? And where does she get off calling you Jim Ivory? Damn cheek"; continuing "And she also had the cheek to call Dharmendra the most brilliant young actor on the Bombay screen today and the natural heir of Dilip Kumar"; disagreeing, but also noting that Dharmendra is buying one of Kushwant Singh's novel to adapt ("or is it produce?"), and B.R. Chopra is buying another; pointing out an article she saw on a group of "brilliant young directors" that included "our old friend Chidananda Das Gupta"; transcribing a long quote from Kierkegaard and relating it to "what's wrong with Ismail"-- that the "adversities" of the last few years, "those awful two years following SW," the failure of "Vertical and Horizontal" and "The Guru," and the difficulties of shooting "Bombay Talkie"; hoping the new year will bring happiness.