Ismail Merchant Movies

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

Circa 1940 in Trinidad, still a British Colony, lives Ganesh Ramseyor, of East Indian origin, along with his wife, Leela. He longs to reach out to...

A legendary collection of miniature paintings have been locked up in the storeroom of an Indian palace for years; the collection's fame attracts a...

"Roseland" is made up of three stories, sometimes connecting, all set in the famed New York City dance palace, and all having the same theme: finding...

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...

Affluent American couple visit Goa, India to re-assess their marriage and meet a local girl who instigates a confrontation between the two.

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

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...

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

A young girl agrees to work in a center for girls who can't stay with their parents. She gets wrapped up in the plights of several of the girls, and...

An English novelist travels to Bombay to watch one of her novels translated to film. She chases after the movie's leading man while the screenwriter...

Britain's top pop artiste, Tom Pickle, travels to Bombay, India, circa 1960s to learn to play the sitar from renowned maestro Ustad Zafar Khan.

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

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...

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

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