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Ismail Merchant's genius widely recognized in US
28th May 2005 09.36 IST
By Agencies

The genius of Ismail Merchant , who died at the age of 68 after producing some unforgettable films with American director James Ivory and German-born screenwriter Ruth Prawar Jabwala, is widely recognized in the US.

Describing Merchant as an "entrancing hustler," The Washington Post said, "For four decades, the three (Merchant, Ivory and Jabwala) were bound by a respect for worldliness and taste. Their literate, lovingly told but sometimes ponderous films were favourites of art-house dwellers who yearned for more than babes, bullets and heroic grunting. To some, they were too precious.

"A Room With a View" (1985), made for 3 million dollars and grossing 60 million dollars, was credited with spurring a revival of intricately detailed period pieces. The story was based on an E.M. Forster tale about a young Englishwoman who visits Florence and comes to an agonized decision about her future.

Merchant was characteristically boastful of its transformation to film. "E.M. Forster sold only 50,000 books in his lifetime," he told a British reporter in 2003. "After we filmed 'A Room With a View," sales went up to 6 million." Merchant was the business and promotional ballast of the trio, and he was revered for his gusto and passion. Badgering, bullying, bluffing--all in the name of art--was his modus operandi. He was known to have done everything from stealing props when he was working on a shoestring budget to bailing a star out of jail, the Washington Post said.

Merchant and his collaborators made about 40 films together and received three Academy Award nominations for best picture: for "Room With a View," "Howards End" (1992) and "The Remains of the Day" (1995).