Details
Movie Description
James Ivory directed this lighthearted comedy set in 1960s India about an arranged marriage between two young people who are too inexperienced and immature to adjust to one another. Young college professor Prem (Shashi Kapoor) and beautiful Indu (Leela Naidu) seem ill-suited as husband and wife in their arranged marriage. While Prem begrudgingly accepts his role as the breadwinner, he tries to turn Indu into what he considers a more traditional wife. After Indu becomes pregnant and Prem turns to his mother for advice, the couple seems destined for trouble. THE HOUSEHOLDER was the first theatrical feature film for Merchant Ivory Productions, the company formed by Ivory and his producing partner, Ismail Merchant. THE HOUSEHOLDER was also the first time the two collaborated with writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, on whose novel the film was based. A recurring theme in Ivory's movies--of characters struggling to adjust to a changing world--can be spotted in this early project.
Synopsis
Merchant Ivory Productions' first full-length feature, from Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's fourth novel, THE HOUSEHOLDER, this comedy shows aspects of contemporary India in the 1960s and how tradition can get turned on its head when love (and sex) have their way.
Film Notes
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Full-Screen - 1.33
Audio:
Mono - English
Additional Release Material:
Documentaries - 1. "The Sword and the Flute" (1959 - Director James Ivory's Second Documentary Short Film)
Short Films - 1. "The Creation of Woman" (1960 - Producer Ismail Merchant's First Short Film)
Featurettes - 1. "Conversation With the Filmmakers"
Theatrical release: October 1963.
THE HOUSEHOLDER was shot on location in Delhi, Mehrauli and Ghaziabad.
Ivory and Merchant visited Ruth Prawer Jhabvala in India and convinced her to let them turn her novel, THE HOUSEHOLDER, into a film. She wrote the screenplay in two weeks, and continued her collaboration with this team on many more films.
Legendary Indian director Satyajit Ray helped James Ivory edit the film, supervised the music, and loaned his talented cinematographer, Subrata Mitra, to the production.
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