Letter from Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, to James Ivory, New York, New York, 1967 March 9 : autograph manuscript signed.

Noting sadly that Merchant has departed Delhi for Calcutta, and she will not see him again before he leaves for New York; relating that he and David Swope arrived back in Delhi on the 5th, fresh from a trip to Ajmer with Merchant's family [Ajmer is the home of the Ajmer Sharif Dargah, a significant Muslim shrine], which she has asked Swope to write to Ivory about; turning to the news of the charity premiere for "Shakespeare Wallah"-- "Oh God. Yes, it was that sort of experience, I'm afraid"; relating how, two days before the screening, Merchant was summoned to present the film in a private screening for Vice President Zakir Husain; confessing that, the day before the screening, she had "forebodings & premonitions" that confounded Merchant; mentioning that a short documentary about the Bihar famine was going to be screened before "Shakespeare Wallah"; relating how, on the day of the screening, they realized Marlon Brando was in Delhi so they invited him as company for Madhur, while Satyajit Ray and his wife arrived, and Marie Seton tried to get into the sold-out event by tagging along with Ray, but was dissuaded by Merchant and Jhab; describing a phone call that afternoon from Ashok Mitra of "the Ministry," insisting that she take part in a ceremony at the screening where people associated with the film-- she, Merchant, Madhur-- would be handed bouquets onstage; she demurring, but Mitra eventually losing his temper and shouting, whereupon Ruth hung up on him; describing how she explained this "using the foulest language" to Merchant when he arrived home, and how he supported her, thought they ultimately deceide to attend because of all the work Catherine had put into it; describing the comedy of errors involved in picking up the various celebrities-- Ray, Brando, Faie Joyce, Anthony Lukas, Madhur, Pinchoo Kapoor and Jim Tytler-- and getting them to the venue, the Vigya Bhavan [i.e., Vigyan Bhawan], a government conference center; describing herself at the screening, seated between Jhab and John Freeman, "Then the film. What shall I tell you? It was terrible. Awful. That film just died on the screen before our eyes"; attributing this death to the bad projection and sound, inappropriate venue, and the audience made up of "dullard civil servants"; relating how the bouquet ceremony went off (without her)-- Merchant, Madhur, and Ray being called up to accept bouquets "done up stiffly like little corpses in plastic wrapping," along with the crew of the Bihar documentary-- "It was exactly like a school prize-giving ceremony."