Art & Entertainment

The Rose Petals

The I&B scrutiniser found fault with only two scenes in the script

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The Rose Petals
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It was in July this year that the Union information & broadcasting ministry, in its self-anointed role as the custodian of morality, put the brakes on the proposed shooting of Indian Summer, a film based on the book of the same name by Alex Von Tunzelmann. The ministry’s objection was that the film, going by the draft script, was not the story of India’s Partition, as claimed by Working Title, the British production house, but more about the romance between India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Edwina Mountbatten, the last vicerine of the British Raj. It has now come to light that the one-man committee of Gajanan Wakankar, a former ifs officer, assigned the task of vetting the script, took a rather lenient view and even said it was well-written. Wakankar only objected to two scenes, which he said had factual errors (see box). But in observations and comments, dated June 1, Wakankar notes: “Are the scenes objectionable to the extent that we should ask the writer to delete them? After all, it is a historical fiction. Besides this, are we a censor? Are we custodians of public morality? None of it. Why should we be prudish about a work of fiction?” But really, what was it in the script by William Nicholson—who also wrote the films  Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Gladiators and Martin Luther—that made the ministry see red? Outlook accessed the script of Indian Summer submitted by the producers to the ministry for clearance. Here are some extracts, including those deemed objectionable:

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Page 2

Indian Plains. Day: The Union Jack fills the frame, flapping gently in the breeze. The sounds of a brass band in the distance. Superimpose caption: India 1947.

Next shot of two American journalists interviewing Mahatma Gandhi sitting on a mat in a nondescript village in India.

Scene shifts to London where the viceroy-designate Lord Louis Mountbatten and wife Edwina Mountbatten are getting ready to go to a party where Winston Churchill and other dignitaries are present. Before leaving for the party, Mountbatten’s conversation is on Bunny Philip—Edwina’s lover.

Mountbatten, talking to Churchill: I shall do my best to obtain a unitary government, within the British Commonwealth.

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Churchill: Play the Muslim card against the Hindus. I am in the long-term interest of Great Britain.

Page 2-98

Edwina calls on Nehru after waiting in a queue outside his office. The two have a cordial meeting.

The scene shifts to Shimla—where the viceroy has invited all the political leaders. Edwina spends a day in Mashobra alone with Nehru.

After she returns from a walk with Nehru, Mountbatten compliments Edwina: Well done, is he thawing?

Edwina: I think so.

Mountbatten: We really need him 100 per cent behind the plan.

(From here on, the script focuses on political events and then moves on to the Edwina-Nehru relationship.)

Page 99

Fatehpur Sikri. Day.

Nehru and Edwina, just the two of them, go on a visit to Fatehpur Sikri (June 1947) immediately after the historic announcement by Viceroy Mountbatten to partition the country and grant independence. During this visit, Nehru admits of his love for Edwina.

Nehru: It will become harder and harder and only in public (for us to meet). You see how the Fates mock me. All those long, lonely years wishing for someone to enter my life. And now here you are and I can’t be with you. Not as I would wish.

(Facing each other, gazing into each other’s eyes.)

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Edwina: Don’t say that. You’ve been chosen to carry out a great task. It’s more important than both of us. All that makes me very proud. I am not teasing, when I call you Jawahar The Great. Not really. (She leans forward and touches his lips with the lightest of kisses.)

(Wakankar observes that this is a figment of the imagination as political activity is at its peak, and it’s inconceivable to think of a prime minister taking out the time to go on a sightseeing tour. The I&B ministry recommended the scene be cut. Officials referred to it as the “kissing scene”.)

Page 111 onward

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Roof. Nehru’s House. Night.

Nehru: You are cold
(He lifts one arm, raising the blanket.)

Nehru: Come.
(She comes under the blanket with him. He wraps her close.)

Nehru: Not the most suitable companion for me. English. Titled. Married.

Edwina: That doesn’t seem to stop me.

Nehru: I don’t understand your marriage. Why do you stay with him?

Edwina: Because he’s loyal and he’s kind. And he seems to be able to put up with me. I’d never want to really hurt him.

Nehru: What does he make of me?

Edwina: He likes you. He admires you. And he knows. He’s not stupid.

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Nehru: What does he know?

Edwina: That I love you...

Nehru: You say it so easily. Is it so easy to say?

Edwina: Yes.

Nehru: Not for me.

Edwina: Why not?

Nehru: Because I can’t have you. And in a few months you’ll be gone.

Edwina: You can always write me a letter.

Nehru: Letters! (He laughs) What sort of love affair is letters?

Edwina: So it’s a love affair, is it?

Nehru: You are sharing my blanket.

Edwina: Then it shouldn’t be hard to say.

Nehru: No. Not so hard.
(He looks at her, smiling, his eyes full  of love.)

Nehru: I love you. God help me!

Edwina: You don’t believe in God.

Nehru: There you are—alone again.

Edwina: I am here. I love you.

Nehru: You’ll still leave me...

Edwina: Not yet. I am with you now. It’s not much. But for now, it’s all the world.

(They stand wrapped in each other’s arms, beneath the blanket, watching the city burn.)

(Officials have said the expression ‘I love you’ and the word ‘love’ have to be removed. No question of being wrapped in each other’s arms, either).

Page 125-127

Bedroom, Viceroy’s Retreat, Mashobra. Day.

Scene: Nehru in his room unpacking his suitcase. He can hear the bath running. He looks happy. Edwina—sitting above, on the verandah.

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Nehru: I wish you didn’t have to leave...
(She turns to find him standing behind her, fresh from the bath.)

Nehru: You could always change your mind.

Edwina: No. I can’t do that. And you don’t want it.
He lays one hand on her shoulder. She puts her hand over his.

Edwina: I am going to miss you. That’s not like me.
(Mountbatten walks in to wish them both good night.)

Mountbatten: Well. Good night.
(He leaves them alone together)

Edwina has chosen a record to put on the gramophone. She winds it up.

Nehru: Your husband’s a good man.

Edwina. Yes he is.
(Edwina turns to Nehru and holds her arms. He rises and joins her).

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The sounds of a big band fills the room. Then, the smooth strains of Bing Crosby.
Singer (music):
Let me ride through the wide open country that I love. Don’t fence me in...

They dance, alone in the room gazing into each other’s eyes.

(While Wakankar describes this as a writer’s privilege of imagination, officials wanted the dancing scene removed)

The film closes with Edwina Mountbatten’s death in 1960, clutching Nehru’s letters in her hands. (She had wished for a burial in a sack in the sea. So her body was taken in a ship from Portsmouth). On the day of the burial, Nehru sent an Indian navy frigate to lay a wreath on the water.

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Nehru died in 1964.

Mountbatten died in 1979 (murdered by a terrorist bomb).

End credits.

The ministry made its objections clear to the producers in July. On  October 5, Tim Bevan and Hilary Bevan Jones of Working Title sought an appointment with Union I&B minister Ambika Soni. They wrote: “As you may or may not be aware, the I&B ministry read an early draft of the screenplay and, based on this, gave permission to shoot in India with a number of editorial caveats.” They said they were open to some revision, but that the script was  grounded in fact. Further, they wrote: “We have....been further developing the script with the I&B notes in mind. We do not want to offend, but at the same time we wish to make a film based on truth and not be self-censorious. The personal relationships depicted in the movie are based on well-documented facts.”

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That was the last correspondence from the producers. Curiously enough, an internal note prepared by the ministry states that the producers are postponing work on the film till 2010.

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