Heat and Dust

Merchant, 1984

Two women, related but separated by one generation and 60 years, have parallel experiences in the evocative mystical environment of India in this period drama from producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory. Based on the 1975 novel by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, the story begins with Ann (Julie Christie) who discovers some letters written by her grandfather's first wife Olivia (Greta Scacchi) that open up a whole new world as Ann travels to India to continue researching her grandmother's past. The letters reveal that when she was young, the free-spirited grandmother fell in love with an Indian nobleman (Shashi Kapoor) and left her husband—an administrator in the British colonial government—for her lover. After Ann arrives in India, her life and the modern rush of cars and people are played off against flashbacks to Olivia's life in a colonial setting. When the environment of each woman is compared and the nature of their momentous decisions placed side-by-side, their rites of passage and the society that dominated their choices stand out in high relief.

Mangal Pandey or 1857: The Rising

Ketan Mehta, 2005

Mangal Pandey—The Rising is an epic tale of friendship, love, loss and betrayal set against the backdrop of the Indian Mutiny of 1857. British colonial rulers are plundering the country, treating the locals unjustly and causing widespread resentment. Worst of all they are using the Indians as sepoys, the infantry of the army to control and regulate the population. After a hundred years of subjugation, India is awakening to the revolutionary prospect of change and self-rule. During the fierce battle in the Afghan wars of the mid-century, Mangal Pandey, heroic sepoy rescues his British commanding officer, William Gordon. The event creates a strong friendship and binding loyalty between them that transcends consideration of rank and race. The friendship is soon challenged, first by the arrival of a charming and beautiful young aristocrat, Emily Kent, and then by the introduction of controversial new gun cartridges among the troops....

Lagaan

Ashutosh Gowariker, 2001

A remarkable story about the triumph of the ordinary, set in 1890s India. Although a drought has impoverished the entire region, the ruling British have imposed a harsh tax (lagaan) on the farmers, prompting the villagers of Champaner to plead for a waiver until the rains come. Feeling himself insulted by one of the young men of the village, an arrogant and capricious British commander, Capt. Russell, challenges the villagers to a cricket match: If the villagers win, they'll avoid taxation for 3 years; if they lose, they'll pay the tax thrice over. The only problem? The people of Champaner have never before played cricket....

A Passage to India

David Lean, 1984

Adventurous young Englishwoman Adela Quested (Judy Davis) journeys to colonial India with open-minded Mrs. Moore (Peggy Ashcroft). Ignoring English customs, the women one day accompany a "native"—Dr. Aziz—on a tour of the Marabar Caves. The excursion turns ugly when Adela emerges from the caves accusing Aziz of rape. British authorities urge Adela to press charges, but the truth isn't as obvious as the government believes it is. …A remarkable film about faith, friendship, and the limitations of cross-cultural communications, adapted from E.M. Forster's novel of the same name.

Earth

Deepa Mehta, 1998

Deepa Mehta directed this stirring tale about the religious and civil strife that broke out in India and Pakistan during the 1947 Partition. The second movie in a trilogy from Mehta (it was preceded by Fire and followed by Water), Earth is based on the autobiographical novel Cracking India by Bapsi Sidhwa and is told through the eyes of an 8-year-old Parsi girl, Lenny (Maia Sethna), who has one leg in a brace.The story centres on Lenny's Ayah, and her once-harmonious circle of friends and suitors, now threatened by rising communal hostilities.

Fire

Deepa Mehta, 1996

Deepa Mehta's Fire, the first Indian film to explore lesbian relationships, follows two Hindu women struggling with loveless, arranged marriages. When Sita (Nandita Das) discovers that her husband, Jatin (Javed Jaffrey), has a mistress, she shares her unhappiness with her sister-in-law, Radha (Shabana Azmi), whose sorrow is her infertility—as well as her husband's coolness. Acquaintance turns to friendship. friendship to love—and all hell breaks loose.The film offers an incisive, often poignant view of the collisions between tradition and modernity, family responsibility and individual desire, affecting not only Rita and Sadha, but all those around them as well.

Shakespeare Wallah

James Ivory, 1965

This film tells the story of a travelling Shakespearean company in India, struggling to perform and make a living in an era when Indian appreciation for English culture is on the wane. In atmospheric black and white, the movie evokes the slow death of Empire, and examines the personal ramifiations for the AngloIndian family that owns the troupe. The artistic and cultural implications of the dissolution are symbilically explored through a love triangle between a playboy rajah, a Bollywood star, and the ingenue daughter of the theatrical company's founders.