Letter from James Ivory, London, England, to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, 1979 March 5 : autograph manuscript signed.

Telling her he finally saw Jennifer, at a screening of "Junoon" she had arranged for Foo [Felicity Kendal] and to which Ivory and the Welches were invited; pronouncing it "a very good sort of horse opera, well made and entertaining, with a lot of atmosphere"; expressing some dismay at Shashi's performance, but great admiration for Govind Nihalani's cinematography; noting that he's heard "you and Jhab thought the film terrible in every way"; saying he also met Richard Rowlandson at the screening and spoke to him about "Heat and Dust"; observing that Julie Christie has agreed to do "Heat and Dust" as long as Ivory directs; confiding that Jennifer finally spoke to Ivory at length about their lives for the last two years, claiming that "Shashi has gone mad. He just sleeps all the time, is all doped up, and refuses to see anybody or go anywhere. He sounds like an injured animal lying in its cave licking wounds (self-inflicted) in the dark"; reporting that Merchant feels that "Shashi is completely to blame and maybe he is, but probably Shashi is one of those helpless men who are completely unable to analyse their feelings and look at themselves and act objectively"; noting a point in one of Jhabvala's recent interviews, where she claims that "Americans of various nationalities, how their foreign communities retain their ethnic integrity better than in Europe, and for generations-- I don't think that is true, beyond one generation"; expressing the opinion that this is a sentimental take, and saying he is bringing it up because it's reflected in the Jane Austen script, and "I feel that not very much should be made of that."