Movie review of Cotton Mary

Add bona fide director to the resume of bouncy Ismail Merchant. <br><br>"Cotton Mary" is the third film that the enthusiastic gourmet cook and usual producer of Merchant Ivory Films has helmed in recent

Friday, April 7th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Add bona fide director to the resume of bouncy Ismail Merchant.

"Cotton Mary" is the third film that the enthusiastic gourmet cook and usual producer of Merchant Ivory Films has helmed in recent years. Most, such as the romantic crowd-pleaser "A Room With a View," have been directed by his partner and companion of 40 years â€“ James Ivory.

But this latest, about the sticky-wicket subject of Anglo-Indians in the post-colonial India of the 1950s, is also one of the esteemed arty filmmakers' best.

The term Anglo-Indian refers to people of mixed heritage â€“ that is, with one Indian parent and one English. A small minority, now estimated to number as few as 100,000 in a country of close to a billion, they hold to Christian beliefs and are said to congregate together.

In the 17th century, wanting India-savvy souls to help settle its colony, the East India Company paid money for each child born to an Indian mom and European papa. Loyal and productive, the progeny were accepted by the British until fears for racial purity (sound familiar?) and their proliferation grew.

They regained status by fighting with the British against their own people when the native Indian army mutinied in 1857. But after independence in 1947, Anglo-Indians were again non grata with both parties for their "very British" ways.

Against this background, enter Cotton Mary, so-called because she preferred English to Indian cotton, who insists that her father was a British officer.

In fact, as magnificently played by the great Delhi-born actress Madhur Jaffrey, she is more British than the Brits. And when the wife of a BBC correspondent arrives at the hospital in troubled labor, Mary, one of the Anglo-Indian nurses, sees her chance to live a fantasy.

After Lily Macintosh (Greta Scaachi) gives birth to a premature infant, Mary volunteers to care for "God's child." Since Lily can't breast-feed, Mary takes the child to her physically challenged sister, who proudly serves as wet nurse.

Having saved the babe, Mary is invited into the elegant British household. There Lily, unattended by her roving, inattentive husband and bored by the snippy, racist ladies of the Raj, grows increasingly dependent on her. As Mary edges out the family's long-time Indian servant, her sister Blossom begins an affair with the master.

Apparently, the Anglo-Indian community is hopping mad about the way they're depicted in "Cotton Mary," requesting that the film be banned. Actually, if anybody's nose is out of joint, it should be the Brits, who, except for Lily, come off as uniformly nasty boors.

But as a tale of lost identity, it's a provocative film, filled with glorious images of India's Malabar Coast. The acting by Ms. Jaffrey, her real-life daughter Sakina, the still-gorgeous Scaachi and a strong supporting cast is a revelation.

Of course, it's Merchant Ivory, which means its pace is languid, but the tension slowly builds, and certainly this cast of actors holds the screen.