Letter from Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, to James Ivory, Mumbai, India, 1968 January 24 : autograph manuscript signed.

Responding to a comment from Ivory that Utpal Dutt tends to "come out too melodramatic" by asking "Why and where?"; hoping Ivory is "taking lines away from him where necessary"; feeling that it can be enough for Dutt to just "sit and be," like Merchant "in one of his depressions, he just sits and is, without having to say one word or move a finger doesn't he sort of put out terrible waves in the atmosphere and reduce us all to the lowest depths of oppressed dejection?"; saying she would like to come with Jhab to Bombay on the weekend of February 10, or at least before the company moves to Bikaner; observing that, in spite of her devotion to "solitude," she hates it when Jhab goes away and leaves her alone; complaining that "it's awful having only six minutes to talk to you on the phone ... Can't you book two calls in succession?"; thinking that "you're probably quite relieved to get rid of me"; admitting that "I suspect you of doing one million nasty underhand [sic] things ... At the same time I know you have to do them, so I suppose in a sort of grudging way I forgive you"; asking if Leela [Naidu] has arrived in Bombay yet; paring down Naidu's dialogue-- "she really isn't good at speaking dialogue" -- to a few essential lines; adding, "The rest can all be made up by looks and silences, and those she is [underlined] good at"; reacting happily to Ivory's news that "Madhur was so marvellous in her sad scene"; lapsing into a meditation on how faces age; claiming that it is hard to find middle-aged and elderly Indian actresses who are fluent in English like Zohra Sehgal, while young actresses are abundant; saying she wants to meet and go over lines with "Guru [Nana Palsikar], Ghazala [Aparna Sen], and Chris [Barry Foster]"; observing, "How cleverly you have planned things for your English actors! First you introduce them to Bombay and make them comfortable at Sun 'n Sand ... next you take them to Bikaner ... perhaps a little stranger, more alien than Bombay? Keep calm, kids, and wait for it. Because after Bikaner comes-- ah, Benaras-- and there you'll take them right into the navel of Mother India"; imagining how "Mr. and Mrs. Bicknell and their family of tiny tots" will react the festival of Holi and the start of summer and its ensuing smells; asking Ivory to remind Merchant to send her a copy of the "Lovely World" typescript, and wondering about possible casting for the part of Arun-- Saeed Jaffrey, Zia Mohyeddin; sayin "Jennifer says that you've come out in boils, and that Prayag too, she noticed, has a stye on his eye" and assuming that this is due not to "undernourishment" as Jennifer thinks, but to stress; expressing sympathy for Ivory during the shoot, with all its attendant irritations; looking forward to working with Shashi and Jennifer [on "Bombay Talkie"] and Foo [Felicity Kendal] on "A Lovely World"; telling him that it looks like Joseph Losey wants Jennifer for his next film; giving her thoughts on Losey's film "The Accident," what it says of Losey as a director, and what it says of Michael York's acting; closing, "Now I'm tired of writing advice and instructions to you which you will not read ... but will toss aside like the Maestro [Satyajit Ray] does with a letter from Marie Seton. I'm beginning to feel [underlined] like Marie Seton."