In Custody Movie Review 1994

Producer Merchant makes his feature directorial debut with this dreamy tale of small-town teacher Deven (Puri) who's urged by a publishing friend to interview Nur (Kapoor), the greatest living poet in the disappearing Urdu language. The worshipful Deven is dismayed to find his idol a wreck, surrounded by sycophants and a shrewish second wife who's plagiarizing her husband's work, and soon finds himself hopelessly entangled in the writer's life. Unabashedly literary (the poetry recited is by Faiz Ahmed Faiz) with a star cast. Based on the 1987 novel by Anita Desai. Urdu with subtitles.

Distribution

Sony Pictures Home Video, Sony Pictures Plz., 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232, Phone: (310)244-7306, Fax: (310)280-2485, URL: http://www.spe.sony.com, Remarks: Formerly Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment

Available on VHS
Running time 123 minutes.
Originally from Indian.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Poetry, India, Growing Older

Screenplay

Anita Desai, Shahrukh Husain

Cast

Shashi Kapoor, Om Puri, Shabana Azmi, Sushma Seth, Neena Gupta, Ajay Sahni, Tinnu Anand

Cinematography

Larry Pizer

Director

Ismail Merchant

Music

Zakir Hussain, Ustad Sultan Khan

Producer

Wahid Chowhan, Paul Bradley, Donald Rosenfeld, Merchant-Ivory Productions, England Channel 4 London, Sony Pictures Classics