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erchant
Princes of Bombay, a documentary by noted film-maker Zafar Hai, evolved
in Hai’s own words, “through a meeting of minds between Zarir Cama, ex-CEO
of HSBC, and myself, the producer/director of the film. We wanted to do
a film together that would throw up the little-known contributions of
the nineteenth-century merchant princes to the building of the great city
of Bombay, as it was then called.” Cama is prominently featured in the
film.
Hai continues, “The merchant princes were fascinating men, who flirted with risk and adventure in their respective businesses, and at the same time gave a great deal back to the city to which they belonged. From the point of view of the structure of the film, it was fortuitous that their lives overlapped and intertwined. The contrast in their backgrounds could not have been greater: an illiterate Parsi orphan who went on to make a fortune in the opium trade. A Jew from Baghdad, who came here empty-handed and created a trading empire. A speculator in the financial markets who became so powerful that a mere note from him could open the vaults of the Bank of Bombay. And a young man ordained as a Parsi priest, who would develop the vision to bring the Industrial Revolution to India.”
Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy
David Sassoon
Merchant Princes is an
effective film, the result of in-depth research within a concentrated
time frame, with picturesque material that synchronises beautifully
with the narration, tracing a linear path through the revolutions
that marked the century.
Beautifully structured and photographed, the film deserves to be
widely seen, particularly by the younger generation, students in
schools and colleges — so that they may learn that these “princes”
were not born but made, and about the tremendous obstacles they
faced and how they overcame them. They became men of great wealth,
but showed considerable compassion for others less fortunate. They
practised the trusteeship of wealth much before Andrew Carnegie
developed the concept in his Gospel of Wealth. They came
as near as possible to the precept of Mahatma Gandhi that “a trustee
has no heirs but the public”.
Premchand Roychand
Jamsetji Tata
Unfortunately in India the showing
of such films is always difficult, unless they are released through
the Films Division and compulsorily exhibited in cinema houses before
the scheduled feature films, or through certain specialised agencies.
The Documentary Film Makers Association has been of great help in
this regard.*
B.K.
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