Memoir With a View.("My Passage From India" by Ismail Merchant)(Book Review)

The Indian half of Merchant Ivory Productions got his start in a scene worthy of one of the duo's opulent period films. Ismail Merchant was only 13 when Bollywood starlet Nimmi invited him to the Bombay premiere of her first picture, "Barsaat." As they arrived in her green convertible Cadillac, the crowd showered them with thousands of golden marigolds. "It seemed so magical--like the movies themselves," writes Merchant in "My Passage From India" (Viking Studio), a slim, jovial memoir. "I can remember thinking, 'If this is what the film world is, I want to be a part of it'."

Merchant has been ever since. He neglected his studies at St. Xavier's Jesuit College at Bombay University, preferring to stage flamboyant productions. While a graduate student at New York University's business school in the late 1950s, he spent most of his energy hustling diplomats, bankers and entertainment folks, trying to raise film funding as well as his profile. Then Merchant met James Ivory, a young Oregon-born director. They went for coffee at the Right Bank on Madison Avenue. And, as Merchant proudly writes in the book--twice--there will soon be a plaque commemorating that meeting. Merchant recalls listening attentively as Ivory talked about film. Ivory remembers Merchant's jumping up to make repeated calls on the coffee shop's pay phone, even borrowing a dime when he ran out of money.

After reading "My Passage From India," it's easier to believe Ivory's recollection than Merchant's. In this entertaining collection of anecdotes, studded with famous names and illustrated with candid snapshots, Merchant comes across as a slick but charming operator who will do whatever it ...