The Householder

Synopsis: A young Indian newlywed finds his independent wife troublesome and seeks help and advice from his overbearing mother, a supposedly worldly wise friend, an American seeker of enlightenment and a swami.
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Director(s): James Ivory
Production: Criterion Collection
 
IMDB:
6.9
Year:
1963
100 min
32 Views


{ Man Chanting Prayer ]

{ Man Continues ]

- [ Sighs ]

- Fine time for sleeping. Get up.

- Huh?

- Get up.

[ Moans ]

Oh, I forgot.

I have something for you.

It's in my pocket.

Go and see.

It's only a card. Go and see.

Where?

In my black jacket.

- For a wedding.

- Hmm.

Mr. Sohanlal gave it to me yesterday.

It's for his brother's wedding at Mehrauli.

- We're going?

- Mmm. Of course.

We will sit in a bus and go.

- What will I wear?

- Hmm?

What will I wear?

- This looks very nice.

- Ha!

My pink sari or my blue?

And my gold earrings.

Mmm.

Here you are.

It's so nice.

Indu, would you like to live here?

It's so peaceful and beautiful.

I think rents must be very low.

It would be economical for us.

- And also dull.

- So you're a big city girl now?

I've seen enough

of cows and fields and wells.

I like to see many people

and cars and buses.

[ Chuckles ] Come.

{ Man Yelling ]

{ Man Singing In Hindi ]

{ Continues ]

I think you don't feel so well.

When I was married last year,

I also did not feel so well.

You know, I thought - I thought,

''What should I do with a wife?''

I was quite angry.

{ Singing Continues ]

But, you know, it's not like that at all.

Not like you think.

Only in the beginning...

when you're first alone together...

and there's never enough money.

So much worry.

And then when you come home

and there's your wife...

and you don't even like her.

You don't know her.

How can you like her?

My mother used to

cook this dal quite differently.

You must learn from her

when she comes.

What is the matter?

What is the use of sighing like that?

You have nothing to sigh for.

Sitting all day.

No work.

And you have a servant -

not that he's much use.

Only think of my position.

It is I who should be sighing, not you.

Do you think teaching at a college

is a joke for me? Hmph.

So many boys in every class,

and every day 9:
00 to 5:00.

And when you come home,

there's more work.

You see all those papers

lying on the table?

I have to see to them also.

You are thinking of your home?

Is that it?

You're homesick?

Homesick. I'm also homesick.

You think I'm happy in this place?

At least clear away all this.

The home must be kept tidy.

At least this much you must learn.

Spick-and-span.

You think my mother would have

left these things lying about like this?

Please remember.

Spick-and-span. Hmm.

{ Water Running ]

{ Woman On Radio ]

This is India Radio.

Here is the news,

read by Pamela Simms.

{ Continues, Indistinct ]

Twenty-six Afro-Asian countries

have conveyed their full support to us...

in the border conflict with China.

Both governments have been asked

to divert as much money as possible--

{ Continues, Indistinct ]

The president, Dr. Radhakrishnan...

is now back in the capital

after a day's visit to Calcutta.

Both houses of Parliament

reassembled in New Delhi this morning...

after an interval of six weeks.

We consider the history

of the Mughal Empire...

from the year 1526

to the year 1857...

there is one salient fact

which strikes us forcibly.

What is that salient fact?

Consider Akbar, Jahan-gir,

Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb.

Now we must consider

some tatsama words.

That is, uh, words uncorrupted

from, uh, Sanskrit.

For instance -

[ Speaking Sanskrit Words ]

Uh, Kartar Singh, what do you know

of tatsama words?

- Nothing, sir.

- [ All Laughing Uproariously ]

- Uh, you please give us some words.

- [ Sanskrit ]

Very good. Very good.

Uh, where are you looking?

Huh? Me, sir?

Listening to your lecture, sir.

- What is that you're hiding?

- Oh, this?

- Notes on your lecture, sir.

- [ All Laughing ]

Please listen.

All tatsama words appear in Hindi

without the Sanskrit case termination.

Uh, thus, these words

appear in Hindi...

- under the form in which they-

- [ All Laughing ]

Who threw it?

- There was a lot of noise coming from somewhere.

- My boys made no noise, sir.

We were considering the glories

of the Mughal Empire.

- Mr. Prem Sagar?

- Mr. Khanna, sir.

We are working on tatsama words.

I was telling them about tatsama words

as distinct from tadbhava words.

I will not have indiscipline in my college.

Is that understood?

No indiscipline.

Attention to our studies,

our thoughts always on examinations ahead...

that is the rule of our college.

Very good.

This is how a college

should be conducted.

- Yes, sir. Quite right, sir.

- If any student is found guilty of indiscipline...

severe measures will be taken

against him.

Severe measures must be taken.

Work is worship.

That is our guiding principle.

Sit down.

Copybooks open.

Pencils out.

The Sanskrit root of our word mata

is taken from matri.

Who -Who threw it?

Huh? You.

- Threw what, sir?

- Sit down.

Didn't you hear what our principal said?

Work is worship.

- { Bell Ringing ]

- If you - If you spend all your time in games...

how will you pass examinations, hmm?

- [ Boys Chattering ]

- { Ringing Continues ]

Thank you. I've eaten and come.

I have to bring my food with me.

I live so far.

Yes. Mehrauli is a long way.

I have to leave home at 6:00...

and then cycle and cycle

to get here at 9:00.

Perhaps there's a college

nearer to Mehrauli.

It's not so easy to get jobs in colleges.

No. I was very lucky

to get a job in this college.

You see, it was through a friend

of my father's.

My father was himself

principal of a college.

- Mmm.

- In Ankhpur. Principal of a government college.

''Of all wretched men,

surely the idle are most so.

''Those whose life is barren of utility...

''who have nothing to do

except to gratify their senses -

''Are not such men the most querulous,

miserable and dissatisfied of all...

''constantly in a state of ennui?

''Alike useless to themselves

and to others.

''Mere cumberers of Earth...

''who, when they are removed,

are missed by none and whom none regret.

Most wretched and ignoble lot indeed

is the lot of idlers.''

It's on very fast.

Perhaps electricity comes free...

so that we can run our fan

at such a speed.

The staff of this college

has all the facilities.

Mr. Khanna is too generous.

I often tell him.

We are very grateful, Mrs. Khanna.

You do so much for us.

Advantage must not be taken

of people's goodness.

Tailor, I want pleats here. Here.

Like this.

When my father was alive,

Mr. Sohanlal...

I had no worries at all.

I was just a student.

Now they've married me to a girl.

It's not easy to be a married man

and support a wife and pay rent.

And I miss my home very much.

My mother and my sisters...

and all my friends.

- And my wife doesn't cook very well.

- { Mrs. Khanna ] That's all.

I want the curtains up by next week

when my guests come.

Mr. Sohanlal,

if you must eat your food here...

please spread something underneath.

Excuse me, Mrs. Khanna.

I am very careful.

We can never be careful enough.

- Mrs. Khanna's very house-proud.

- Yes.

My wife is not house-proud at all.

Only yesterday

I had occasion to tell her.

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Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, (7 May 1927 – 3 April 2013) was a German-born British and American Booker prize-winning novelist, short story writer and two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter. She is perhaps best known for her long collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions, made up of director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant. After moving to India in 1951, she married Cyrus S. H. Jhabvala, an Indian-Parsi architect. The couple lived in New Delhi and had three daughters. Jhabvala began then to elaborate her experiences in India and wrote novels and tales on Indian subjects. She wrote a dozen novels, 23 screenplays, and eight collections of short stories and was made a CBE in 1998 and granted a joint fellowship by BAFTA in 2002 with Ivory and Merchant. She is the only person to have won both a Booker Prize and an Oscar. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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    "The Householder" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 Nov. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/the_householder_20474>.

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