Heat and Dust
Theatrical release poster by Drew Struzan
Directed byJames Ivory
Written bySaeed Jaffrey
Produced byIsmail Merchant
StarringJulie Christie
Greta Scacchi
Shashi Kapoor
Zakir Hussain
CinematographyWalter Lassally
Edited byHumphrey Dixon
Music byRichard Robbins
Zakir Hussain
Production
company
Distributed byCurzon Film Distributors (UK)
Universal Classics (US)
Release dates
  • January 1, 1983 (1983-01-01) (UK)
  • September 15, 1983 (1983-09-15) (US)
Running time
133 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguagesEnglish
Urdu
Hindi
Budget₤2.2 million[1]
Box office$1,741,435

Heat and Dust is a 1983 romantic drama film with a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala based upon her novel, Heat and Dust. It was directed by James Ivory and produced by Ismail Merchant. It stars Greta Scacchi, Shashi Kapoor and Julie Christie.[2]

The plot of Heat and Dust follows two intertwined stories. The first is set in the 1920s and deals with an illicit affair between Olivia, the beautiful young wife of a British colonial official and an Indian Nawab. The second, set in 1982, deals with Anne, Olivia's great-niece, who travels to India hoping to find out about her great-aunt's life, and while there also has an affair with an Indian man.

Heat and Dust forms part of a cycle of film and television productions which emerged during the first half of the 1980s, reflecting Britain's growing interest in the British Raj.[3] In addition to Heat and Dust, this cycle included Gandhi (1982), The Jewel in the Crown (1984), The Far Pavilions (1984) and A Passage to India (1984). Ivory performed tanpura for score music with Zakir Hussain's tabla.The film was entered into the 1983 Cannes Film Festival.[4]

Plot

In 1982, Anne, an English woman, intrigued by the fate of his great-aunt Olivia, whose letters and diary she has inherited, interviews the elderly Harry Hamilton-Paul, who in his youth was Olivia's close friend when they were both living in India

Anne’s search leads back to 1923, during the British Raj, when Olivia, recently married to Douglas Rivers, a civil servant in the colonial administration, comes to join her husband in Santipur, in central India. Douglas is an attentive husband and the couple seems to be very much in love. When he offers her to spend the summer in the hills, she refuses in order to remain with him even if he is busy with his official duties. The Anglo-Indian society in Santipur is headed by Crawford, the District Collector and Dr. Saunders, the Medical Officer. Their wives befriend Olivia. However, the conventional narrow society of the English memsahibs, bores her. Mrs Saunders, the morbid wife of the local doctor, warns Olivia against the Indian men who all they think about "is to do you know what with a white woman". Mrs. Crawford, the Burra Memsahib, is more sympathetic, but equally limited to life within the British colony. The racist Dr. Saunders takes an instant dislike to Olivia. While the Anglo-Indian society seems to have little to offer Olivia, she is slowly enthralled by India itself. The region is being ransacked by a group of sanguinary bandits, and intrigues are opposing the British community led by Major Minnies and Mr. Crawford against the local ruler, the Nawab of Khatm. The British suspect him of being in league with a gang of bandits, allowing them to operate with impunity in exchange for a share of their booty.

The Nawab, a romantic and decadent minor prince who combines British distinction with Indian pomp and ruthlessness, invites all the Anglo-Indian officials and their wives for a dinner party at his palace. At the dinner, Olivia attracts the attention of the Nawab. One of the British expatriates, Harry Hamilton-Pau, enjoys a close intimacy with the Nawab. He is the prince’s confidant living in his household at the Khatm palace. With his good humor and charm, Harry serves a sort of court jester and is well liked even by the chain smoking and proud Begum Mussarat Jahan, the Nawab's mother. Through Harry, the Nawab brings Olivia into his circle. While Douglas is away working, Olivia accepts the Nawab’s invitations. Harry falls sick and Olivia comes often to visit him at the Nabaw's palace. The Nabaw easily seduces Olivia and they engage in an illicit affair.

Following in Olivia’s footsteps, Anne come to India to investigate her great-aunt's fate. Anne stays in Santipur in the same surroundings that framed Olivia’s story more than fifty years earlier. She stays as the guest of an Indian family. The head of the household, Inder Lal, is a smooth talker of good manners who serves her as her guide while she tries to get connected with the world that Olivia lived. Inder Lal is worried that their hitherto innocent relationship will be perceived as sexual. Lal is married with children and lives with his wife and his mother. Ritu, Lal's young wife, is an epileptic and he slowly, but surely, insinuates himself to Anne to whom he is attracted. Anne befriends Chid, an American sanyasi and would-convert to Hindu mysticism. Chid tries to seduce Anne with his antics, but she firmly rebuffs his sexual advances while becoming closer to Inder Lal.

Things get complicated for Olivia when she gets pregnant. She informs Douglas and the Nawab about it. Both men welcome the news. Douglas, unaware of his wife infidelity, wishes for a son as blond as he is. The Nawab does not doubt that he is the father and he is overjoyed in having a mix-race heir. He sees this as an ironic twist of fate that will allow him to take revenge from the English who had reduced him from a ruler to a pawn. Suspecting that she is pregnant with the Nawab’s child, Olivia has an abortion in secret with Harry’s and the Begum Mussarat Jahan’s help. Olivia continues bleeding and pretending to have a miscarriage, she is taken to the hospital where the Dr. Crawford immediately discovers her ruse.

Cast

Notes

  1. ^ Long, The Films of Merchant Ivory, p. 120
  2. ^ Long, James Ivory in Conversation, p. 109
  3. ^ Long, The Films of Merchant Ivory, p. 128
  4. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Heat and Dust". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-06-14.

References

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