BIB_ID
450922
Accession number
MA 23840.416
Creator
Jhabvala, Ruth Prawer, 1927-2013, sender.
Display Date
Delhi, India, 1967 December 8
Credit line
Gift of James Ivory, 2021.
Description
1 item (11 pages) ; 22.7 x 17.4 cm + envelope
Notes
Year from postmark.
Stamped envelope addressed to Mr. James Ivory, c/o Taj Mahal Hotel, Apollo Bunder, Bombay 1, postmarked January 9, 1968.
Stamped envelope addressed to Mr. James Ivory, c/o Taj Mahal Hotel, Apollo Bunder, Bombay 1, postmarked January 9, 1968.
Provenance
James Ivory.
Summary
Letting Ivory know that she has sent the manuscript for "A Lovely World" [the never-produced sequel to "Shakespeare Wallah"] to Motlibai Street [the Merchant's house in Bombay], and reminding him to send it to a typist; wondering how the "Guru" shoot is going, and musing on how, once scenes begin to be put on film, all sorts of moot alternatives seem to occur to her; wondering what "flaws" and "dangers" they will discover; saying that she finds the shoot "the least important and least interesting part" of the process, but "of course it isn't; probably the contrary"; observing that "Michael York seems to me just like Shashi was when we started on HH [i.e., "The Householder"]. Too easy, casual, lazy. Shashi didn't sit up till he saw the rushes and saw himself being played off the screen"; suggesting that Ivory "give him sort of quiet bits of horseplay to do whenever possible ... Try and make Michael think"; giving positive feedback on York's sitar playing; adding that Rita Tushingham "has the most delicate comprehension of the part" but has "fastened rather too much on to [the character of] Jenny's intenseness"-- "yes, Rita Tushingham must be stopped from running away and playing Rita Tushingham as she does in all her other films"; asking about "the appendages" [i.e the lead actors' partners]-- assuming Pat [Patricia McCallum, soon to become York's wife] will be no trouble, "But Mr. Tushingham!" [photographer Terry Bicknell]; describing her impression of Tushingham and Bicknell: "the moment I saw those two walking into that hotel room in the Taj, my heart sank. They seemed so suspicious, and being suspicious, menacing ... Or rather, he's menacing, standing in front of her, protecting her against all of us who want to take advantage of her talent"; claiming that Tushingham "will come in very useful as a study for the Jennifer-Shashi film ["Bombay Talkie"], as will her own experience with Shirley Maclaine and Vivien Leigh; observing "how unhealthy and horrible the star-system is! Unhealthy and horrible, obviously, for the stars themselves. Just see how it twists and deforms ... And how unhealthy for you, as for every film director, to have to deal with such people"; expressing profound relief that Utpal Dutt is there, and reminiscing about "Those nightmarish days in Bombay! I sat for hour after hour in that room in [the hotel] Sun 'n Sand looking out over the grey waves rolling and I felt paralysed with fear and shock" [Dutt had been arrested for his left-wing political activities]; reflecting on how dependent on others the art of filmmaking is; passing on Jhab's admonition that the production "pay Utpal as little as you possibly can at this stage, and give it all to him when the film is finished and you need fear nothing more about what happens to him. Because apparently-- so Jhab was told here in Delhi by those who ought to know-- that Utpal had been sending money from Bombay to the Underground in W. Bengal. And no doubt he'll do it again if he gets any more money"; giving a long and detailed description of meeting Didi Contractor, and "how frightfully she irritated me"; enclosing a "short exchange between Ustad & Admiral" [not present].
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