| | |  | Foreign Film | Home » » Bombay Talkie - The Merchant Ivory Collection | | | | | | | Description: | | Entrancing Merchant-Ivory drama follows middle-aged British "junk novelist" Jennifer Kendal to India to watch the filming of one of her works. While there, she begins a tempestuous affair with married Indian actor Shashi Kapoor (Kendal's real-life spouse) that leads to tragedy. Zia Mohyeddin, Aparna Sen also star. 111 min. Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English; documentary; interviews. | | | Product Details: | | | Actors:
| Shashi Kapoor, Jennifer Kendal, Zia Mohyeddin, Aparna Sen, Utpal Dutt | | Director:
| Anthony Korner | | Format:
| Anamorphic, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC | | Language:
| English | | Subtitle:
| English | | Number of Discs:
| 1 | | Studio:
| Merchant Ivory Productions | | Run Time:
| 111 minutes | | DVD Release Date:
| November 11, 2003 | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 4 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 4 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 A triple disappointment!Jun 22, 2008
By S.L.
Bombay Talkie is a highly implausible tale about an obnoxious English woman who, in a nutshell, drives two younger Indian men mad with desire. It's all about her and her sick obsessions, and sheds very little light on the inner workings of the Bollywood film industry. This is disappointment number one.
Disappointment number two is the fact that the giant typewriter dance scene featuring Helen, hinted at in the included documentary "Helen: Queen of the Nautch Girls," is not really part of the feature. In fact, you get less of it there than in the documentary, just a tiny snippet of the rehearsals. What a waste -- one minute of Helen is worth an hour of Jennifer Kendal any day!
Worst of all is disappointment number three. I bought this DVD not so much for the feature but to acquire "Helen: Queen of the Nautch Girls." It is included, but it was mastered from a terribly scratched-up print with no attempt at restoration. As a result, most of the documentary is all but unwatchable.
Stay away from this lemon of a feature, and let's hope that a restored version of "Helen: Queen of the Nautch Girl" is released separately some day!
 Only the uncouth and unwashed would fail to appreciate this work of artApr 30, 2012
By Sparks
This is one of my favorite romantic dramas and I dont understand the low ratings. Sure -- the main character is spoiled and unlikable at times but the story flows so well you can't help but get caught up in it. The dialogue's sophisticated and the plot is tight. It ended at exactly the right moment too which is something most films are unable to pull off.
Sensuous and lyrical with superior acting/dialogue/soundtrack.
Early Merchant IvoryMar 06, 2012
By Juliet Waldron
""Mozart's Wife""
Hand-held shots--real ones--begin the movie, which has, throughout, a low-budget, technically unsophisticated feel. (There is never anything unsophisticated about the interactions of M-I characters.) The story, of a successful, narcissistic English writer on the loose in India, certainly had traction in the 1970's when the movie was made. The West was just beginning to discover the "magical East" and the ancient sensuality of that culture. Plenty of rock and movie stars were journeying there on spiritual quests. So, for me, the story was not "implausible." In fact, it seems to be about the human problem which absorbs M.I., that being the emotional difficulties of a set of flawed personalities, usually with caste/class inequality which makes the difficulty insurmountable. Here, the miscarriage of intent is heightened by a nasty cross-cultural collision. The handsome Bollywood star and the poor writer both go off their cultural rails, while the western woman is selfish, impulsive, and unaware. As one of the Indian characters who reads her palm says, she's not truly a bad person who acts with intentional malice, but her lack of self-knowledge causes bad things to happen around her. She's as innocent as a spider eating flies--it's just her nature--but her emptiness drains and deforms her lovers. Plot-wise, the story reminded me of "Jules & Jim," where another three-way love affair comes to a bad end. I'm glad I've finally seen this early work of M.I., but the movie shows it's age.
9 of 19 found the following review helpful:
Stiff upper-lipped offeringNov 04, 2004
By Chris Holmes
"busker"
Ah but check the "Theatrical Release Date", yes indeed: January 1, 1970. Hence the almost unfunny stiltedness of the dialogue and apparent de rigueur Oxford accents all round. (Were they dubbed? I dont see why, but some of the chat between hero and writer is wayy out of synch with their lips). The strained and stiff Jennifer Kendal plays Brit authoress out in Bombay to *maybe* write about its movie industry. She falls for and has it off with real-life hubby hunky Shashi Kapoor, which makes for the convincing intensity missing everywhere else. Equally unconvincingly, the Kapoor chap leaves glam wife to cavort with la K, which apart from some deep kissing largely consists of being told not to be a bore and to have another drink. Kendal looks and acts like a nervous (but terribly well bred) bird, but now and then the camera catches a good angle and one glimpses the prettier and more accomplished Felicity. I can't work out what the relationship is - elder sis? cradle-snatched mum? - but it's damn'd distracting.
Rescued by interesting interview with Merchant, Ivory and Jhabvala and excellent 30-min documentary on Nautch hoofer queen, Helen. But as i say, cave the date - coz it *doesn't* wear its datedness well.
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