Merchant, Ismail

Ismail Merchant was born in Bombay ( Mumbai ), in the family of a textile merchant Nour Mohamed Rehman and Khazra (Memon's maiden name) ^[1] . He grew up in a bilingual environment, knowing Gujarati and Urdu from an early age, later at school he studied Arabic and English . As a child of 9 years old, Ismail made an emotional speech about dividing India at a political rally in front of a crowd of 10,000 people. When he was 11 years old, India gained independence from Britain and was divided into two states, the Indian Union and the Dominion of Pakistan . Ismail’s father was president of the Bombey branch of the Muslim League , but refused to move to Pakistan . Merchant later said that he carried memories of “rebellion and unrest” into adulthood ^[2] .

Ismail met his first mentor in 1949; thanks to his family connections, at the age of 13, he met and became friends with the twenty-year-old Indian film actress , who, in turn, introduced him to the studios of Bombay, the main center of the Indian film industry . It was she who inspired him to build a career in film ^[3] . After graduating from school, Ismail entered the Bombay and received a bachelor's degree from the University of Bombay . It was here that he developed his love of cinema. When Ismail was 22 years old, he went to the United States , where he received an MBA degree from New York University . While living in America, Ismail worked as a courier at the UN and used this work to convince the Indian delegates to finance his film projects ^[2] . Immersed in the world of art and culture, the Merchant discovered the films of Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray , as well as such European masters as Ingmar Bergman , Vittorio de Sica and Federico Fellini ^[3] . In 1960, Ismail as a producer took part in the shooting of the short film “The Creation of a Woman” (engaging in The Creation of Woman ), which was shown at the Cannes Film Festival and nominated for an Oscar .

In 1959, an event occurred that predetermined the future life of Ismail. On the set of the documentary film “The Sword and the Flute” ( eng. The Sword and the Flute ) in New York, he met director James Ivory. Already in May 1961, they created their own film company “Merchant — Ivory Productions” ( eng. Merchant Ivory Productions ). Merchant and Ivory became long-term partners. Their professional and romantic partnership lasted for 44 years, from 1961 until the death of Merchant in 2005 ^[4] , and fell into the Guinness Book of Records as the longest partnership in the history of independent cinema. Before the death of Merchant, they released about 40 films, some of which were marked by prestigious film awards. The author of the scenarios for more than 20 of their films was the Anglo-American writer Ruth Praver Jabwala , the only person in the world who received both the Oscar and the Booker .

In 1963, Merchant and Ivory presented their first film, “ The Master of the House, ” based on the novel Praver Jabwala (she also wrote the script). It was the first Indian film that was distributed internationally by the American film giant Columbia Pictures . However, it was only in the 1970s that the partners achieved recognition by releasing the film "The Europeans " based on the novel by Henry James , which adapted Jabwal.

In addition to producing, the Merchant himself shot several films, including two television ones. For television, he produced a short film entitled “Mahatma and a Mad Boy” ( eng. Mahatma and the Mad Boy ), as well as the full-length film “Bombay Courtesans” for the British Channel 4 . In 1993, Merchant filmed his first full-length film “Custody” based on Anita Desai ’s autobiographical novel, starring Bollywood star Shashi Kapoor . Filmed in Indian Bhopal , the film won the National Film Award for the best production and special jury award for Shashi Kapoor. Merchant's second film The Owner was shot in Paris with actors such as Jeanne Moreau , Shaun Young , Jean-Pierre Omon and Christopher Keysnov .

About his partnership with Ivory and Jhabwala, the Merchant once said: “This is a strange marriage with us in Merchant Ivory ... I am an Indian Muslim, Ruth is a German Jewish woman, and Jim is an American Protestant. Someone once called us a three-headed god. Perhaps they should have called us a three-headed monster! ” ^[5] .

Ismail Merchant died in Westminster ^[6] (London, UK) at the age of 68, after surgery for a stomach ulcer ^[7] . He was buried in Mumbai on May 28, 2005, in accordance with his desire to be buried along with his ancestors.

Merchant loved cooking and wrote several books on the art of cooking, including Ismail Merchant's Indian Cuisine ; Ismail Merchant's Florence ; Ismail Merchant's Passionate Meals and Ismail Merchant's Paris: Filming and Feasting in France . He also wrote books about filmmaking, including a book about making the film “The Deceivers” in 1988 called “Fuss in Old Jaipur” ( eng. Hullabaloo in Old Jeypur ), as well as about the shooting of the picture “The Owner” The Proprietor . His latest book was titled My Travel from India: A Journey of Film Directors from Bombay to Hollywood and Beyond ( English: My Passage From India: A Filmmaker's Journey from Bombay to Hollywood and Beyond ).

In 2002, the Merchant was awarded the third highest civilian award in India - Padma Bhushan ^[8] . He is also the winner of the Prize for Excellence International Center of New York ^[9] .

Director

• 1974 - Mahatma and the Mad Boy ( short )
• 1983 - The ( dokudrama )
• 1993 - In Custody
• 1995 - Lumière and Company (one of the episodes, together with D. Ivory )
• 1996 -
• 1999 -
• 2002 -

Producer

• Cheek of the devil, charm of an angel: Ismail Merchant, Producer, 1936–2005 (Eng.) // The Sydney Morning Herald . - 30 May 2005. - p. 41.

• Ismail Merchant (English) on the site of the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Biography from Merchant-Ivory Productions
• Sleazy of creative movies
• Ismail Merchant: In Memory