Ismail Merchant: A maverick filmmaker departs : Hollywood News : ApunKaChoice.Com


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Ismail Merchant: A maverick filmmaker departs
26th May 2005 21.50 IST
By N K Deoshi

He is the man who, along with his American partner James Ivory, revived interested in celluloid period dramas. The unexpected demise of filmmaker Ismail Merchant is an irreplaceable loss to the world of cinema.

Merchant’s partnership with Ivory began in 1961 and together the two went on to make Oscar-winning period films such as ‘Howards End’, ‘A Room With a View’ and the incredibly sensitive ‘The Remains of the Day’.

Once in an interview, Merchant was asked how did he manage to make such sumptuous and well bodied costume dramas, to which he replied that his movies were “not just costume dramas.” “A good and thought provoking story lies at the base of all my films,” he had said.

True indeed are these words for anyone who has seen Merchant’s films.

Sir Anthony Hopkins, who worked in ‘Howards End’ and ‘The Remains of the Day’, told a Hollywood-based site that with the death of Merchant the cinema world has lost “a great man and a true pioneer.” “He was the one and truly great maverick producer, a law to himself,” Sir Anthony is quoted.

Shashi Kapoor , who worked in several of Merchant’s films, said in Mumbai that he was “deeply saddened by the departure of an old friend.”

“I spoke to him three days ago. He seemed fine. And today I’m shattered to hear the news,” Kapoor said yesterday.

Remembering Merchant, Kapoor said: “ He (Merchant) was a workaholic. Nothing gave him more satisfaction than doing a good job.”

In their 44 years of partnership, the Merchant-Ivory joint venture won six Oscars, including four for best picture – with German-born screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. The Merchant Ivory team also cemented a place in The Guinness Book of World Records for the longest partnership in independent cinema.

Merchant was a multi-faceted personality. Besides being a producer, he himself directed some thought-provoking films.

His directorial debut ‘In Custody’ (based on a novel by Anita Desai, and starring Shashi Kapoor) won Indian National Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Costume and Best Production Design.

Merchant was recently shooting for his film ‘The White Countess’ in China with Ralph Fiennes.

Ismail Merchant died at the Queen Elizabeth hospital in London on Wednesday of ulcer burst in the abdomen. He was 68-year-old.

Merchant's brother-in-law Waheed Chauhan told an agency: “His body will be taken to Mumbai, his birth place, in a couple of days for burial.”