Autobiographie d'une princesse

Made for British television by the correctly esteemed Merchant/Ivory partnership, with an expected well-wrought screenplay from Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, this short (one hour) film is essentially a chamber piece for two characters, shot primarily within a single room of a London town house, but the subject is an India that is no more, yet still appears to be real to a viewer of this carefully organized and well detailed production. Madhur Jaffrey plays as an Indian Princess who arranges for Cyril Sahib (James Mason), tutor of her late father, to meet with her in her English home to commemorate the anniversary of her father's death, and to reminisce at tea that which her selective memory considers as a golden Colonial past. They accomplish this through 16mm. films that she possesses (featuring actual footage of the erstwhile Princely States of Jodhpur, Jaipur, and Bikaner) and, when not viewing, they discuss their shared memories, although it soon becomes apparent that Cyril is not utilizing the same rose-tinted lenses as is his hostess, and has not remotely her tolerance of pig sticking, big game hunting and other leisure sports enjoyed at her father's court. For it appears that, in Cyril's version of their historical discussion of her father, that the Maharajah had in fact a demoralizing influence upon the Englishman due to an aimless and sybaritic lifestyle provided by the Crown to Colonial Royalty and its minions, so that despite, and because of, his acceptance of a high level of personal comfort, Cyril's ambition to become an author had faded entirely. In spite of these clear differences of opinion concerning merits of Royal privilege, the Princess presses Cyril to halt his current writing project to take on the task of being biographer to her late father, she believing that the potentate's former influence over him will supersede Cyril's current authorial aims. The film's concept was created following a journey to India by producer Ismail Merchant, who had travelled to his native land as means of developing a documentary project focusing upon descendants of Maharajahs, to include extensive interviews with these latter that, although rather undramatic in themselves, comprise a crucial segment of an attempt by the Princess at establishing a historical reconstruction of her father's life, to be garnished with her own romantic standards. Both Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud were considered for the role of Cyril Sahib, but were found to be unsuitable, whereas Mason, Merchant's choice, desired the part, and is well cast for this somewhat lesser known entry by the Merchant/Ivory tandem. Although Mason has top billing, the film is dominated by Jaffrey's playing, her character strongly written with no obvious artifice in her depiction of a woman desperately wanting to record a past that is patently open to interpretation by others. Jaffrey's adjustments to her saree during the opening scene are fascinating and her timing is perfect throughout, under the strong direction of Ivory, in a minimalist setting. A wrong note is struck with a poorly done dramatised sequence relating of a sex scandal involving the Maharajah and blackmailers, but the work eventually recovers.

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.

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.

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.