The Householder

Stars: Shashi Kapoor (Heat and Dust, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid), Leela Naidu, Durga Khote . st effort from the team responsible for 1992's Howard's End (writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, director James Ivory, and producer Ismail Merchant) is a charming, though dated, comedy of the sexes set in India. When Prem Sager (Kapoor), a poor teacher at a boy's college, marries Indu (Naidu) in an arranged marriage, neither are happy. Indu is an independent spirit who chafes at the bit of contemporary patriarchal Hindu society, while Prem just wants to know when his wife is going to learn to cook as good as his mother, and why she doesn't greet him at the end of the work day with hot tea. To make matters worse, Prem's mother (Khote) comes to visit...and stays. After a few weeks, Indu is outta there, and only then does Prem gradually begin to realize that he misses and maybe even loves his new wife. In addition to the main story line, a satiric portrait of an American expatriate looking for nirvana ("only the eternal is important, the rest is shadow") adds to the fun. Although this black & white 1962 film feels a bit old (especially in its American and British humor), and there are a few tell-tale scratches on the print, The Householder is a good lighthearted comedy with winning performances from Kapoor, Naidu, and the amusingly self-deprecating Khote as the backbiting "mother." Audience: People looking for a clean multicultural comedy, as well as those interested in Ivory-Merchant adaptations (Heat and Dust, Maurice, A Room With a View, Howard's End)