Ismail Merchant on his film 'Cotton Mary', in Kerala

From the archive record

Ismail Merchant speaks about his film 'Cotton Mary' He says, "It's a very dramatic subject very interesting characters, characters of Cotton Mary the world she lives in and then she wants to abandon that world to become a Mem Sahab and she takes over the house the Lilly Mcintosh character a difficulty with her marriage, difficulty with her pre-mature baby so she thinks that the baby is weak and she becomes almost like he Cotton Marry takes over her life and the idea and ambition of Cotton Marry is to become a Mem Sahab changes her identity so this like a complete twist and turn and that character is so rich, so complex and so interesting there's a director's dream. Madhur Jaffrey brought this subject to me it was written by Alexander Wheats he is a very good writer this is her first screen