The Householder

The Householder (1963) was directed by James Ivory, produced by Ismail Merchant, and written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. This movie has a relatively simple plot, but in some ways the themes are universal. The well-know Indian actor Shashi Kapoor plays Prem Sagar, a young college professor who is bullied by his employer, his colleagues, and his students. His young wife, Indu, is portrayed by the beautiful Leela Naidu, a former Miss India. She is beset on all sides--by Prem's inadequate income, his comparisons of her cooking with his mother's superior cooking, and by what he perceives as his new wife's lack of intelligence and social skills. Then, to compound the problems, his mother (Durga Khote) comes to visit and dominates the lives of both young people.

Prem seeks advice from a friend to whom he looks for guidance, and from an American hippie, who takes him to visit a holy and virtuous man. The remainder of the plot consists of Prem's attempts to bring order and harmony to his life.

This film is almost 50 years old, shot in black and white, with low production values. It's worlds away (literally and figuratively) from the later Merchant/Ivory/Jhabvala movies. However, even if it's not slick, it has real merits and is worth seeking out and viewing.

We saw the movie on the TCM channel, as part of a series of Merchant/Ivory films. It worked well on the small screen. See it and judge for yourself.