This unpretentious little gem came out around the same time as David Lean's PASSAGE TO India, and has been unfairly overshadowed by the blockbuster. I was charmed by the quiet, sensitive, yet emotionally charged portrayal of how an insecure, aggressive widow of a tea garden manager reluctantly develops an affectionate relationship with an Indian housewife and her family. What I found particularly good was that the Indian housewife, played excellently by Madhur Jaffrey, is no impossible goody-goody, but as much a human being with likes, dislikes and prejudices as the widow played by Deborah Kerr. There is also the sad irony of the grandchildren of the Indian family inevitably leaving their 'Indianness' behind in favour of a British lifestyle. Strongly recommended for those in the mood for subtlety and understatement. And it should be watched with Lean's PASSAGE TO India for fruitful comparisons. To my mind, and I'm probably in a minority of one, THE ASSAM GARDEN is the better of the two films. I once possessed a video recording of it, which is now the property of the Film Studies Department of Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India.
4 Reviews
Perhaps too delicate for its own good
AlsExGal20 April 2024
The film marks Deborah Kerr's final feature film appearance. She plays an English woman who spent her young adulthood with her now-dead husband in India where they ran a tea plantation. Back in England, she has always felt out of place. The husband spent his UK years building an exotic garden in homage to his years in India. Kerr slaves to maintain the garden, but it's more than just the garden she's trying to preserve.
She meets an Indian woman (Madhur Jaffrey) who lives in the village and who longs to return to India. The immigrant starts to help Kerr in the garden and the two women form an odd bond because of their Indian "roots," though each woman's India is a very different place and likely does not even exist anymore. Kerr's memories of the waning days of colonial India and Jaffrey's memories of quaint village life are just that: memories of long-lost worlds. In the end, one of the women succumbs to the lure of memory and leaves the garden.
Excellent performance by both actresses.
She meets an Indian woman (Madhur Jaffrey) who lives in the village and who longs to return to India. The immigrant starts to help Kerr in the garden and the two women form an odd bond because of their Indian "roots," though each woman's India is a very different place and likely does not even exist anymore. Kerr's memories of the waning days of colonial India and Jaffrey's memories of quaint village life are just that: memories of long-lost worlds. In the end, one of the women succumbs to the lure of memory and leaves the garden.
Excellent performance by both actresses.
This movie could have been much better
deanslgr17 June 2013
Warning: Spoilers
Having read about Henry Cook and his "subtropical garden," the setting for "The Assam Garden," I was really eager to locate a copy of this movie. However once viewed I was sadly disappointed. Deborah Kerr does a good job of representing an English woman who was a 'somebody' in India, the wife of a tea plantation manager, but in England is, essentially, a 'nobody' -- a relic of a forgotten time, and not a particularly sympathetic one at that. Her reluctance to adjust to the changing times reminds me of many of the older people I knew growing up. Madhur Jaffrey, on the other hand, turns in a rather wooden performance. I have seen her work in other films and so I can only assume that either the script or the directing, or perhaps both, are to blame here. To make my point, I would refer to the scene where Helen has fallen off the ladder and is lying unconscious on the ground. Ruxmani approaches as if nothing in particular had happened, which made the entire scene rather irrelevant.
The last scene of the movie was totally out of character, and seemed like something thrown together after the end of a long day when everyone's creativity was exhausted.
Apparently this was a made-for-TV movie, which explains the production values -- or lack thereof. The movie is not entirely awful, and overall the tale of what happened to people after the Raj makes for an interesting story. Perhaps it's a matter of point of view, but I would not compare "The Assam Garden" to "A Passage to India." Instead it reminded me more of "Staying On," the follow-up to "The Jewel In The Crown." I can easily imagine Helen having tea on the porch with Lucy Smalley, reminiscing on 'the good old days' which were probably not as good as either of them remember.
Oh, one last nit-picky note: despite what Helen tells Mr. Philpot from the garden society, the banana plants shown in the movie were NOT Musa ensete (now more correctly called Ensete ventricosum), which is a quite distinctive plant, but more likely Musa basjoo or some other more commonly found nursery banana.
The last scene of the movie was totally out of character, and seemed like something thrown together after the end of a long day when everyone's creativity was exhausted.
Apparently this was a made-for-TV movie, which explains the production values -- or lack thereof. The movie is not entirely awful, and overall the tale of what happened to people after the Raj makes for an interesting story. Perhaps it's a matter of point of view, but I would not compare "The Assam Garden" to "A Passage to India." Instead it reminded me more of "Staying On," the follow-up to "The Jewel In The Crown." I can easily imagine Helen having tea on the porch with Lucy Smalley, reminiscing on 'the good old days' which were probably not as good as either of them remember.
Oh, one last nit-picky note: despite what Helen tells Mr. Philpot from the garden society, the banana plants shown in the movie were NOT Musa ensete (now more correctly called Ensete ventricosum), which is a quite distinctive plant, but more likely Musa basjoo or some other more commonly found nursery banana.
Old age doesn't promise us a rose garden.
mark.waltz21 April 2020
Warning: Spoilers
There's a bond created here. A bond of opposites who come together by chance and realize that their friendship it's something deeper than just two older women getting together over it. Deborah Kerr and Madhur Jaffrey are complete opposites it seems when they first meet. Kerr is your typical cranky older woman, ordering kids off her property who simply want to save time by ducking through rather than using the road which would take three times as long. When she meets Jaffrey, the connection is not instant. Jaffrey's husband is ill and She needs to get a doctor out to see him. It is obvious that even in 1980's England, the class system would keep an Indian immigrant from getting medical treatment while Kerr would get 8 immediately. Kerr reluctantly agrees, and over a period of time, the two women create a bond, first over Kerr's lovely garden, and later over their disappointments of life and aging.
For Jaffrey, it seems that her biggest concern is the ungrateful daughter in law she does not get along with, one rejecting old Indian traditions and basically being disrespectful to her in-laws for keeping them alive. It is obvious that this daughter-in-law keeps her husband under her thumb, even though she is always polite when seen on screen. We only learn about what she is up to through Jafferey's conversations with Kerr. As for her son, he is ultra polite, very interested in what Kerr has to say when she pays a visit, yet unable to stand up to his wife to defend his parents. It is sad to watch this occur, but unfortunately, that storyline is never developed.
This film is basically a character study of two women of different cultures finding something in common and learning that true friendship is a bond that time, space and cultural differences cannot destroy. It is nice to watch Kerr lighten up as the film goes on and she must deal with her individual financial issues left behind because of her beloved husband's death. Both women give very good performances, and at times it seems like they are reacting as people would in a real setting rather than just by reading a script. Neither woman is a saint, and both get to show the flaws deep inside their soul. It is an interesting film but it just seems that something is missing. The garden, however, is gorgeous, and certainly Kerr's character had every right to be proud of it and want the legacy of what she and her husband created to survive.
For Jaffrey, it seems that her biggest concern is the ungrateful daughter in law she does not get along with, one rejecting old Indian traditions and basically being disrespectful to her in-laws for keeping them alive. It is obvious that this daughter-in-law keeps her husband under her thumb, even though she is always polite when seen on screen. We only learn about what she is up to through Jafferey's conversations with Kerr. As for her son, he is ultra polite, very interested in what Kerr has to say when she pays a visit, yet unable to stand up to his wife to defend his parents. It is sad to watch this occur, but unfortunately, that storyline is never developed.
This film is basically a character study of two women of different cultures finding something in common and learning that true friendship is a bond that time, space and cultural differences cannot destroy. It is nice to watch Kerr lighten up as the film goes on and she must deal with her individual financial issues left behind because of her beloved husband's death. Both women give very good performances, and at times it seems like they are reacting as people would in a real setting rather than just by reading a script. Neither woman is a saint, and both get to show the flaws deep inside their soul. It is an interesting film but it just seems that something is missing. The garden, however, is gorgeous, and certainly Kerr's character had every right to be proud of it and want the legacy of what she and her husband created to survive.
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