FILM / Blown sideways by the winds of change: In Custody, the new Merchant Ivory production, is a break from tradition. For this one the partners have switched roles. Oh, and it's in Urdu. Laurie Critchley watched them filming in Bhopal

A wind turns Bhopal's largest lake to an angry green. Behind the tangerine walls of the old Mughal fort, a chant swells to a murmur. The huge wooden doors swing open, and a procession of mourners in shades of white stream out carrying a dead Urdu poet. Leading the procession is the tall figure of Ismail Merchant, elegantly clothed in an ivory silk kurta and embroidered emerald slippers. Merchant often makes brief appearances in his films. But on this occasion, he has also forsaken his more common role of producer for that of director.

Merchant has wanted to make a film of Anita Desai's In Custody for six years. Nominated for the Booker Prize in 1984, it tells of the death of a great Urdu poet. But it is also a story of survival, for the poet's words remain for future generations in the custody of a young college professor.

'Culture, tradition, language. That's what you are born with, that's why you feel strongly about them,' Merchant observes during a rare break in the action. 'But this film is not a tribute, it's about how the winds of change try to destroy certain things, and how you have to stand firm and see that something is preserved and given on to future generations.'

Born in 1936 to middle-class Muslim parents in Bombay, Merchant is a child of the Partition of India in 1947, and still has nightmares about those riots. For him, as for many of his Indian cast, the message of In Custody is deeply felt in light of the more recent anti-Muslim violence that shook India after the destruction of the Ayodhya mosque. Merchant is convinced that Urdu forms part of the rich mosaic of Indian culture. 'Political pundits and leaders in this country have destroyed many things, and they'll keep on destroying. But traditions are resilient and find new ways of carrying on.'

His own lifestyle is a case in point. With a film career that has spanned three continents and three decades, Merchant has lived and worked most of his life in the West. For many, his partnership with the director James Ivory is synonymous with great film interpretations of Western classics, but Merchant insists he has 'never left India', and he remains a devout Muslim with a passion for Indian classical music and poetry.

In Bombay, where the company has one of its three production offices (the other two are in New York and London), Merchant stays at the family flat and plays uncle to more than 20 nieces and nephews. He is a renowned cook and has made a tradition of preparing a meal once a week for his cast and crew.

Merchant's stature suits his expansive personality and he combines a shrewd business sense with bountiful charisma; enveloping cast and crew alike in his bonhomie. As filming comes to an end on Nur's funeral procession, a tiny old woman slowly makes her way towards the Guahar Mahal fort. 'Ismail, your star has arrived]' shouts an assistant director and Merchant rushes to escort her inside.

She is Maza Bi, former attendant to the female ruler of Bhopal, the Nawab Begum, who left India for Pakistan during Partition. After a chance meeting with Merchant, Maza Bi has been perfectly cast as an attendant to the poet's first wife, Safiya Begum, a role she has assumed with all the enthusiasm and experience of her years.

Merchant is an expert forager, and the cast and crew of In Custody - a low cost production even for Merchant Ivory - are peppered with volunteers. But if this film is Ismail Merchant's personal project - his first full length film as a director - it is no less an Ivory / Merchant production. The location, for one thing, clearly bears the hallmark of a Merchant Ivory film.

Ismail Merchant first discovered the Gauhar Mahal a year ago, buried under mounds of dirt and housing a small shanty town. Now, having undergone some renovation, it is redolent of graceful decay and great things past. Home to the production crew, who have set up office under the stucco arches of the outer Hall of Audiences, the former palace is itself a central character in the film. Without it, In Custody could not have been made.

'If we hadn't found a good location, there'd be no point in doing the film,' says Merchant. 'Unless you have a location which fits in with the characters and their relationships, until such time you haven't achieved anything. The atmosphere of the place makes it come to life.'

James Ivory, who is more commonly credited with Merchant Ivory's aesthetic sense, is on the set, but spends most of his time watching or reading. 'It's a little odd,' he confesses of his new status, 'and it's more tiring in a way than making a film because if you're actually directing, you're charged with adrenalin. If you're not, these are just very long, very hot days.' But he continues to exercise his painstaking eye for detail. 'I can see all kinds of little things which normally Ismail might not know to look for,' he says. 'For example, we had a scene in which a singer is showered in one rupee notes. But the Art Department went and got a lot of fresh one rupee notes from the bank, so when they threw them it looked like monopoly money . . . Since then we've crushed it and we've walked on it and we've crumpled it and stained it. It's the sort of thing - since I'm just sort of standing around - I could notice and we did something about.'

Although originally written in English, In Custody is being filmed entirely in Hindi and Urdu. 'I didn't want to make an English language film because it would have lost its authenticity and the feeling of the characters,' insists Merchant. 'I wanted to do it as it was spoken.'

This has raised queries about where In Custody will find its audience. It is neither a typical Hindi film nor is it guaranteed of a large Western market. Merchant is unfazed. 'If it has spoken to me, then there are enough people it will relate to.'

'In Custody' opens on 3 June

(Photograph omitted)