Heat and Dust / Autobiography of a Princess (1983)

Director: James Ivory

Starring:  Christopher Cazenove (Douglas Rivers), Greta Scacchi (Olivia, his wife), Julian Glover (Crawford, the District Collector), Susan Fleetwood (Mrs. Crawford, the Burra Mensahib), Patrick Godfrey (Saunders, the Medical Officer), Jennifer Kendal (Mrs. Saunders), Shashi Kapoor (The Nawab), Madhur Jaffrey (Begum Mussarat Jahan, the Nawab's mother), Nickolas Grace (Harry Hamilton-Paul), Barry Foster (Major Minnies, the Political Agent), Julie Christie (Anne), Zakir Hussain (Inder Lal, Anne's landlord), Ratna Pathak (Ritu, Inder Lal's wife), Tarla Mehta (Inder Lal's mother), Charles McCaughan (Chid).

Olivia (Greta Scacchi), recently married to Douglas Rivers (Christopher Cazenove), a civil servant in the India colonial administration, accompanies her husband to India in the early 1920s.  The British colonial community there, led by Major Minnies (Barry Foster) and Dr. Saunders (Patrick Godfrey), is beset with bandits and rebellious intrigues.  The community is set against the nawab.  But Olivia is not repulsed by the nawab.  She finds herself fascinated by the country and the nawab.  This sets her on a collision course with her own ethnic group and scandal. 

The main theme is set in a flashback where Anne (Julie Christie) is researching the "scandalous" life of her grand-aunt Olivia. 

Historical Background:

See A Passage to India (1984).