Movie: In Custody (Muhaafiz)

Actors: Shashi Kapoor, Om Puri, Shabana Azmi,
Director: Ismail Merchant, Producer:

Based on Anita Desai`s novel of the same title (which I haven`t yet read), this beautiful, yet little known, gem of a film is a very moving and poignant film with a worrying message at its heart.

It is gorgeously shot (which is not surprising since it is made by the Indian half of the Merchant-Ivory team) and set in a fictional Indian town called Mirpur in modern times. The basic plot is very simple: Om Puri plays Deven, a lecturer of Hindi whose real passion and hobby is Urdu poetry. When he is asked to interview his hero for an article in a Urdu magazine, the cannot believe his luck. However, he doesn`t realise the difficulties in life Nur Shahjahanabadi is going through-with his deteriorating health, two wives (one of them an ex-courtesan played by Shabana Azmi who is jealous of his poetic success) and the hangers-on, freeloaders and sycophants who plague him and is shocked to find the state of neglect his hero is in. The other difficulty he faces is getting the college to give him the funds for his interview including the purchase of a tape recorder for recording the interview for posterity. What follows is a hilarious, yet very moving, film.

Though the film centres around Om Puri`s lecturer, it is Shashi Kapoor as the gargantuan poet Nur who really steals the show. He plays the part of the dying poet to perfection and his Urdu diction is wonderful. The actual poems he recites are really those of Faiz Ahmad Faiz which lends the film an air of authenticity. The film is at its best in those scenes which feature Shashi Kapoor and Om Puri. In one scene Nur compares the nazm 'Mere humdum, mere dost' (by Faiz) to Keats` La Belle Dame Sans Mercie' .

It is obvious the Nur represents Urdu poetry and his poor health is a metaphor for that of Urdu in India. A very moving film with an important message, it is intelligent film-making of a kind rarely seen in India and it is ironic that it was made by an expat.

Beautiful. Highly recommended. It is available from amazon.co.uk and only in VHS PAL format. Don`t know about any releases on DVD yet but would love to hear from anyone who has it in that format!