Heat And Dust cover art

Heat And Dust Details

1982 Certificate 15
  • Rated:
  • 60
  • from 537 members

Director James Ivory's HEAT AND DUST tells two parallel stories set in India, one in the present and the other in the days of British rule. In 1920s India, a young English bride, Olivia (Greta Scacchi), finds herself in a passionate, forbidden affair with the local Nawab (Shashi Kapoor). In the second story, Olivia's great .. Read more

Starring Julie Christie, Shashi Kapoor, Christopher Cazenove, Greta Scacchi
Director James Ivory
Genres Drama

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Heat And Dust

Director James Ivory's HEAT AND DUST tells two parallel stories set in India, one in the present and the other in the days of British rule. In 1920s India, a young English bride, Olivia (Greta Scacchi), finds herself in a passionate, forbidden affair with the local Nawab (Shashi Kapoor). In the second story, Olivia's great niece, Anne (Julie Christie), travels to India and there learns of her great aunt's affair with the Nawab, her subsequent pregnancy, and her exile from the British community. Anne's life begins to roughly imitate that of Olivia's when she has an affair with a local Indian administrator (Zakir Hussain) and also becomes pregnant. Merchant Ivory screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala based the film's screenplay on her own acclaimed novel of the same name. Jhabvala was raised in England but after meeting her husband, an Indian architect, moved to India, where she lived for 24 years. Her screenplays AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A PRINCESS, HULLABALOO OVER GEORGIE AND BONNIE'S PICTURES, and HEAT AND DUST reflect her own experiences as a British citizen living in a foreign land. At the time the film was released in 1983, HEAT AND DUST was Merchant Ivory's biggest commercial success.

Starring Julie Christie, Shashi Kapoor, Christopher Cazenove, Greta Scacchi, Susan Fleetwood, Barry Foster, Julian Glover, Nickolas Grace, Madhur Jaffrey
Director James Ivory
Studio ODYSSEY VIDEO
Run time DVD: 2 hrs 4 mins
Certificate Certificate 15
Genres Drama
Language DVD: English
Released DVD: 15 Nov 1999
Production year: 1982
Format DVD
  • Critics' reviews (5) of Heat And Dust

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  • 3 stars out of 5

    Ex-BBC researcher Julie Christie travels to India to investigate her late great-aunt Olivia (Greta Scacchi) who caused a scandal in the 1920s — and it doesn't take long for us to guess that she became rather too familiar with an Indian. Adapting her own novel, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala produces a new twist on EM Forster's A Passage to India, using two characters and separate time zones to express similar ideas about cultural collision. It's arty and undeniably exotic, with Christie and Scacchi refusing to be upstaged by the ravishing Rajastani scenery that director James Ivory constantly throws at us.

    • Radio Times
  • 2 stars out of 4

    Much praised by those who admire the work of this team, but found (as usual) mildly bewildering by others, this has at least a large enough budget to produce interest in its historically re-created backgrounds if not its complex plot structure.

    • Halliwell's Film Guide
  • Most helpful member's review of Heat And Dust

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  • 2 out of 2 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 4 stars

    Heat and dust

    very good movie

    an ivory merchant classic

    julie christie in a very different role

    opportunity to see zakir hussain as an actor

      • A customer from UK
  • Most recent members' review of Heat And Dust

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  • 1 out of 2 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 4 stars

    A bit different but good

    Interesting but I will not watch it again.

      • A customer from Riding Mill
  • News and features

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    Don

    Bollywood and Beyond

    • 26 Mar 2007

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Rating breakdown

537 Member ratings
  • 100
22
  • 90
26
  • 80
73
  • 70
86
  • 60
118
  • 50
73
  • 40
57
  • 30
37
  • 20
30
  • 10
15

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    • Director James Ivory's HEAT AND DUST tells two parallel stories set in India, one in the present and the other in the days of British rule. In 1920s India, a young English bride, Olivia (Greta ...