Ismail Merchant

Ismail Merchant
Born	Ismail Noormohamed Abdul Rehman 25 December 1936(1936-12-25) Bombay, Maharashtra, India
Died	25 May 2005(2005-05-25) (aged 68) London, England
Occupation	producer, director, actor, screenwriter
Years active	1960–2005

Ismail Merchant (Gujarati: ઈસ્માઈલ મર્ચન્ટ) (25 December 1936 – 25 May 2005) was an Indian-born film producer, best known for the results of his famously long collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions which included director (and Merchant's longtime professional and personal partner) James Ivory as well as screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Their films won six Academy Awards.

Merchant succeeded as an independent producer in Hollywood for more than 40 years. His strength lay in funding his projects, particularly in his ability to produce films for several million dollars less than those of his contemporaries.

Background

Born Ismail Noormohamed Abdul Rehman (Gujarati: ઈસ્માઈલ નૂરમોહમદ અબ્દુલ રહમાન) in Bombay, he was the son of Hazra (née Memon) and Noormohamed Haji Abdul Rehman, a Mumbai Memon textile dealer. He grew up bilingual in Gujarati and Urdu, and learned Arabic and English at school. When he was 11, he and his family were caught up in the 1947 partitioning of India. His father was president of the Muslim League, and refused to move to Pakistan. Merchant later said that he carried memories of the "butchery and riots" into adulthood.

He studied at St. Xavier's College, Bombay and it was here that he developed his love of film.

When he was 22, he traveled to the United States to study at New York University, where he earned an MBA. He supported himself by working as a messenger for the United Nations and used this opportunity to persuade Indian delegates to fund his film projects. He said of this experience that "I was not intimidated by anyone or anything".

In 1961, he made a short film, The Creation of Woman. It was shown at the Cannes Film Festival and also received an Academy Award nomination.

Merchant Ivory Productions

In 1961, Merchant and director James Ivory formed the film production company Merchant Ivory Productions. Merchant was also Ivory's long-term life partner. Their professional and romantic partnership lasted from the early 1960s until Merchant's death in 2005. Their partnership has a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest partnership in independent cinema history. Until Merchant's death in 2005, they produced nearly 40 films, including a number of award winners. Novelist Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was the screenwriter for most of their productions.

In 1963, MIP premiered its first production, The Householder, based upon a novel by Jhabvala (she also wrote the screenplay). This feature became the first Indian-made film to be distributed internationally by a major American studio, Columbia Pictures. However, it wasn't until the 1970s that the partnership "hit on a successful formula for studied, slow-moving pieces ... Merchant Ivory became known for their attention to period detail and the opulence of their sets". Their first success in this style was Jhabvala's adaptation of Henry James's The Europeans.

In addition to producing, Merchant directed a number of films and two television features. For television, he directed a short feature entitled Mahatma and the Mad Boy, and a full-length television feature, The Courtesans of Bombay made for Britain's Channel Four. Merchant made his film directorial debut with 1993's In Custody based on a novel by Anita Desai, and starring Bollywood actor Shashi Kapoor. Filmed in Bhopal, India, win National Awards from the Government of India for Best Production Design and special award for the lead actor Shashi Kapoor. His second directing feature, "The Proprietor," starred Jeanne Moreau, Sean Young, Jean-Pierre Aumont and Christopher Cazenove and was filmed on location in Paris.

Of his partnership with Ivory and Jhabvala, Merchant once commented: "It is a strange marriage we have at Merchant Ivory . . . I am an Indian Muslim, Ruth is a German Jew, and Jim is a Protestant American. Someone once described us as a three-headed god. Maybe they should have called us a three-headed monster!"

Cooking and writing

Merchant was also well known for his "lavish private parties". He was fond of cooking, and he wrote several books on the art 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 on film-making, including a book about the making of the film The Deceivers in 1988 called Hullabaloo in Old Jeypur, and another about the making of The Proprietor called Once Upon a Time . . . The Proprietor. His last book was entitled, My Passage From India: A Filmmaker's Journey from Bombay to Hollywood and Beyond.

Awards

In 2002, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan. He was also a recipient of The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence.

Death

Merchant died in Westminster, London, aged 68, following surgery for abdominal ulcers.

He was buried in the Bada Kabrestan in Marine Lines, Mumbai, on 28 May 2005, in keeping with his wish to be buried with his ancestors.

Filmography

Director

• Mahatma and the Mad Boy (1974, short)
• The Courtesans of Bombay (1983, documentary)
• In Custody (1993) (feature debut)
• Lumière and Company (1995, segment "Merchant Ivory, Paris") co-director with James Ivory
• The Proprietor (1996)
• Cotton Mary (1999)
• The Mystic Masseur (2002)

Producer

• The Creation of Woman (1960, short)
• The Householder (1963)
• Shakespeare Wallah (1965)
• The Guru (1969)
• Bombay Talkie (1970)
• Adventures of a Brown Man in Search of Civilization (1972, TV)
• Helen: Queen of the Nautch Girls (1973, short)
• Savages (1973)
• Mahatma and the Mad Boy (1974, short) - also director
• The Wild Party (1975)
• Autobiography of a Princess (1975)
• Sweet Sounds (1976, short)
• Roseland (1977)
• Hullabaloo Over Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures (1976)
• The Europeans (1979)
• Jane Austen in Manhattan (1980)
• Quartet (1981)
• Heat and Dust (1983)
• The Courtesans of Bombay (1983) - also director
• The Bostonians (1984)
• A Room with a View (1985)
• Noon Wine (1985, TV) - executive producer (not Merchant Ivory)
• My Little Girl (1986) - executive producer
• Maurice (1987)
• The Perfect Murder (1988) - executive producer
• The Deceivers (1988)
• Slaves of New York (1989)
• Mr & Mrs Bridge (1990)
• The Ballad of the Sad Café (1990)
• Howards End (1991)
• Street Musicians of Bombay (1991) - executive producer
• The Remains of the Day (1993)
• Jefferson in Paris (1995)
• Feast of July (1995) - executive producer
• Surviving Picasso (1996)
• A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries (1998)
• Side Streets (1998) - executive producer
• Cotton Mary (2000)
• The Golden Bowl (2001)
• Merci Docteur Rey (2002)
• Le Divorce (2003)
• Heights (2004)
• The White Countess (2005)

Further reading

• "Cheek of the devil, charm of an angel: Ismail Merchant, Producer, 1936–2005" (Obituary reprinted from Telegraph, London), in The Sydney Morning Herald, 2005-05-30, p. 41

External links

• Ismail Merchant at the Internet Movie Database
• Ismail Merchant at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Biography from Merchant-Ivory Productions
• Merchant was the driving force behind a slew of creative movies
• Ismail Merchant: In Memory