Autobiography of a Princess

I found this short film by Merchant-Ivory to be quite interesting. While it's not abounding with action and is basically a slow two-person film, it explores the sense of entitlement and cluelessness among the ruling elite of pre-independence India. The film consists of an ex-princess living in a London flat (Madhur Jaffrey) having a quiet reunion dinner with her dead father's old secretary (James Mason) on the birthday of her father. Mostly, Mason is rather subdued and quiet as the Jaffrey talks and talks. Then, after the pleasantries, she shows him old film of her father and discusses his life and legacy. For the most part, the princess is REALLY clueless and whines a bit about how sad it is times have changed--not acknowledging the widespread poverty and inequity of the old system. In a land of hunger and privation, you see the old ruler on hunting expeditions and playing polo. And, in a few sick cases, folks died serving him and Jaffrey lives under the illusion that he was good to 'his people'. Fascinating and ample proof that an autocratic system is morally bankrupt and clueless--insisting that within their hearts, the Indian people STILL love them (despite having driven them from the country!). A fascinating little portrait but clearly not a film for everyone.

On the face of it, this film, an early effort from the Merchant-Ivory team, does not sound that interesting. Madhur Jaffrey plays an Indian princess exiled from her homeland and living in a London flat, where she plays hostess once a year to her late father's secretary, Cyril (James Mason).

Together they reminisce about the past and watch old films of the height of the Royal India and the days of the Raj. It is the use of this documentary film which makes 'Autobiography of a Princess' interesting. The characters themselves, the Princess and the secretary, both have their own ingrained prejudices and recollections, and neither really gain our sympathy.

However, the acting from both Jaffrey and Mason is outstanding and these characters really do live on the screen, warts and all.

Sometimes it can take three, four or even several hours for a film-maker to tell their tale or sometimes just several minutes and sometimes a director will make a feature that is the cinematic equivalent of a short story. "Autobiography of a Princess" falls very much into this category. It's a Merchant/Ivory picture, again with a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and made in 1975. It lasts less than an hour and is basically a two-hander in which an Indian princess living in London, (Madhur Jaffrey) and her father's former tutor, (James Mason), spend an afternoon drinking tea and watching home movies of life in a past India.

It's no masterpiece but it's superbly acted, particularly by Mason who underplays beautifully and, of course, in very little time it says a great deal about India's past and England's present, the class system in both countries and the psychological makeup of the two participants in this annual orgy of nostalgia for bygone days. It's clear the team making this film have no real fondness for the events we see but Merchant/Ivory are too clever to simply attack them. This is a very subtle demolition job captured in Jaffrey's prattling on and in Mason's pained expressions. It makes a perfect companion piece to the later "Heat and Dust" and is an essential part of the Merchant/Ivory canon.

Perhaps you have to be a bit of an Anglophile, or a lover of lost grandeur, to like it. And certainly not the film if you're looking for action. But this movie slowly reveals its pleasures, and quietly is becomes affecting. I am surprised the film appears to have received so little attention. It is short at just less than hour. But definitely worth watching.

The plot is in the tradition of "Hindoo Holiday": a young Englishman undone in life by his love for the Maharajah who indulges, teases & dominates him. But the acting is so sublime. Both Jaffrey & Mason are subtle & suggestive in their every move, word, pause, gesture. Every breath has more impact than a car chase. This is a movie worth seeing again & again. And it should be shown in every acting class in the world.

I'm really glad Madhur Jaffrey became a great cookbook author, but she is a sublime actress who was born at a time that did not allow her to have the parts that should have made her an international star.