April / 2002

ON THE ROAD
Finding Merchant Ivory and The Mystic Masseur
“It would be lovely if you set the sticks here and made a pan left to right”

by Kelly Mason

Kelly Mason with dancers from the wedding scene of The Mystic Masseur.

I was at my grandmother’s home in Port of Spain, leisurely flipping through the local paper, when I read the headline, Merchant Feature Being Shot in Trinidad. At first I figured, hmmm, a film about merchants, then it dawned on me that this might be bigger than I thought.

Off to location I went, with resume in hand. Having not fully clued in to what Merchant meant, I casually approached a silver-haired, British-looking bloke and asked him if he was involved in the production. He replied, “You could say that.” Feeling confident, I asked him to pass my resume on to the cinematographer, Ernie Vincze; then, wanting to thank the gentleman before I wandered off, I asked him his name. To my amazement, he introduced himself as James Ivory, and asked if I could start as camera operator the next day.

So over the course of six weeks in the early months of 2001, I had the grand privilege of operating for director Ismail Merchant and DOP Ernie Vincze on the Merchant Ivory production The Mystic Masseur. The feature, based on the novel by V.S. Naipaul, is the first of his acclaimed literary works that the author has permitted to be translated to the screen. It took Merchant years to persuade Naipaul to agree to the film adaptation of his first novel. Set during the mid-1950s in Naipaul’s native Trinidad, the story is rooted primarily in the Indian community.

One of the challenges I faced my first day was figuring out who took precedence in the chain of command. Merchant is usually the producer in the 40-year partnership with Ivory that has produced such award-winning films as A Room with a View, Howards End, and The Remains of the Day, all directed by Ivory. The Mystic Masseur, produced by Nayeem Hafizka and Richard Hawley and executive produced by Paul Bradley, was Merchant’s fifth film as director.

Merchant greeted me in his graceful, waddle-like way, with hands held high in frame form. He walked me through a long, lavish dolly move that covered the entire scope of the set. Moments later, Ivory approached me and gently said, “It would be lovely if you set the sticks here and made a pan left to right.”

James Ivory

In the meantime, off in the distance, Ernie Vincze was down on his knees wondering why the high hat wasn’t already at his feet with me behind it. I swiftly and quietly informed him that James had suggested an alternative shot, but Ismail now was within earshot of my revelation. To my relief, both parties enthusiastically agreed with James’s idea.

Seconds later the sticks were in place and the head honcho was established.
With precious little preparation time on the ground in Trinidad before shooting started, Ismail brought his team from London, New York and Bombay. With a general election pending, it wasn’t an ideal time to start shooting; however, we shot between January and the start of carnival at the end of February.

As if by magic, all the props
materialized in the nick of time

It would have been difficult to accomplish this feat without the generosity and help of the many locals and their passionately creative culture. Local set designers and artists were hired to find the props needed to suit the 1940s and 1950s era. They searched all over the country and, as if by magic, all the props materialized in the nick of time. These included a 1937 Vauxhall, a 1952 gold Rolls Bentley for the smart colonial dinner scene at Government House, ancient bicycles rented from older men who had been wobbling around the cane fields since the 1940s, and even a collection of colonial currency discovered in the home of a numismatist.

Not since the Americans moved out of Chaguaramas at the end of the Second World War had there been such a frantic rush of activity in Trinidad’s northwest peninsula. This area became the hub of the shoot. Half of the construction crew were locals and the other half of Merchant’s extensive labour force came from “Bollywood.”

Besides DOP Vincze, who is also head of cinematography at the National Film School in England, and me, the camera department was rounded out by focus puller Ga’an (meaning knowledge). He and the rest of his crew were from India, but the language barrier didn’t slow us down; we communicated mostly through sign language. Ga’an, probably in his mid 50s, has been travelling with Merchant Ivory Productions for more than 20 years. He would magically attract butterflies to the top of his head on a daily basis.

DOP Ernie Vincze (left) shares a smile on the set of The Mystic Masseur with operator Kelly Mason and director Ismail Merchant.

It was a delight to work again with Om Puri, the lead actor (East is East and City of Joy). We had worked together on a Deepa Mehta production in 1989 called Sam and Me. He has been in over 500 films, and was even teaching the local grips how to set a flag to protect against lens flare.

Auditions occurred sporadically throughout the production. For example, one afternoon a twinkling-eyed older man leapt into a chair beside the director while we were on location and announced he was an actor. Ismail inquired, “And what part have you come for?”

“Ah does do everything,” and he picked up the script to look at a few lines that were underlined. In one breath he reeled off a history of all the roles he played on and off the stage, and with heart and soul gave a wonderfully animated audition.

Ismail looked on like a kindly uncle and said, “Thank you so much for coming to see us. We will get your name and number and contact you if a part should open up.”
The island man gave a little bow and happily skipped away.
The Mystic Masseur is now travelling the world film festival circuit. It is scheduled for limited North American release next month.

(CSC Associate Kelly Mason, a native of Trinidad, is a Vancouver-based operator.)

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