(1983; English, Hindi, Urdu) The convoluted intricacies of class and race, the complex intimacies of culture and religion infuse this story of parallel lives separated by over half a century, attempting convergence in India, with tension and suspense. In India "everything gets mixed up and absorbed." Based on a novel by Ruth Prawer Jhabrala (who also wrote the screenplay), director James Ivory's film is aswirl with intrigue and lust.

Having been spurned by a married man, Anne (Julie Christie) takes an interest in her great aunt, Olivia (Greta Scacchi), who had gone to India in the 1920s, six months after marrying Douglas Rivers (Christopher Cazenove), a British assistant collector. Olivia had written lengthy letters to her sister Marcia (who had her own amorous adventures in Paris), Anne's grandmother; along with reading their correspondence, Anne tape-records the reminiscences of Harry Hamilton-Paul (Nikolas Grace), who had been a close friend of Olivia and the nawab (Shashi Kapoor), before journeying in 1982 to Satipur, India.

The narrative moves back and forth between Anne's deepening relationship with her Indian landlord, Inder Lal (Zakir Hussain), whose young wife Ritu suffers fits of illness, and Olivia's evolving emotional consciousness among her husband's British peers, Indian servants, and the Mogul provincial governor.

Anne begins with knowledge of Olivia's having had an apparent miscarriage; not a proper memsahib in the eyes of other British expats, she departed the hospital for the Palace Khatm without informing Dr Saunders (Patrick Godfrey), abandoning Douglas, who then divorced her. Leading up to this incident, she had refused to leave Douglas during the hot season (with its dust storms that can drive one mad) - "Don't send me away from you" - to go with the other English women to the cool mountain resort at Simla.

The nawab, whom the British suspect of protecting the murderous dacoits (Tikaram's gang of bandits), relates a tale during a formal dinner of his Muslim ancestor Amanullah Khan's murdering the raja and his party beneath a tent over an insult involving a marriage contract; his own wife, only 16 years old, had forsaken him for England.

Bored when Douglas is often away on official business, Olivia, accompanied by Harry, accepts an invitation from the nawab for a picnic, which she neglects ever mentioning to her husband.

Anne makes acquaintance with Chidanandra (Charles McCaughan), an American who says he's divested himself of his former name and material possessions to become Hindu: happiness is "a pure, unharmful mind." Giving alms increases one's good karma toward not having to be born again; but when Chid tells her, "You need sex" to achieve "union with all life … superconsciousness," she reproaches the cheeky young man for taking from the poor while he lives and eats free.

Declining Anne's offer of being taken to see a physician, Ritu prefers going on a pilgrimage to a shrine to be healed; Inder expresses exasperation with his fellow countrymen as "ignorant fools." From Anne another soul awaits reincarnation.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in video and/or DVD format, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2009 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

Patrick Ivers can be reached via e-mail at .