Ismail Merchant Movies

In the Mumbai, India, tenement community of Pavanpul, young female courtesans sing, dance and perform sexual favors for male clientele. Directors...

Two teachers vie for the right to stage a play written by Jane Austen when she was twelve years old.

Police Inspector Ghote lives a middle-class life in Bombay along with his wife, Pratima. He has been employed with the Bombay Police for many years....

The drama, adapted from a story by Katherine Anne Porter, tells of a Swedish immigrant who arrives on a small Texas farm at the turn of the century...

Nirad C. Chaudhuri expounds his views on culture, history, religion and society from a comparative perspective.

A British family is trapped between culture, tradition, and the colonial sins of the past.

Satyajit Ray’s masterpiece the Apu Trilogy is widely considered one of the most important works in cinema history. In 1992, Ray was awarded the...

This 14-minute film talks about the Hindu god Brahma's creation of life, the world and of course the first woman. Saeed Jaffrey narrates the story as...

Ismail Merchant's feature directorial debut addresses a subject close to his heart: the expressive Urdu language of Northern India, in danger of...

Prem, a young school teacher, is arranged married and begins the journey of learning the roles and responsibilities required of him.

Looks at the musical extravaganzas which constitute the main bulk of commercial cinema in India; in particular at the career of Helen, the undisputed...

In the time frame of a single day (from dawn to dust), the film records the wanderings of an Indian youth who sleeps on the beach, holds...

Off-camera, a Western traveler tells us of hearing singing from his hotel window in Bombay. He searches for the source, and discovers a caste of...

This short documentary, shot in July 1976 at the Mannes College of Music on Manhattan's Upper East Side, marks the first collaboration between...