Hullabaloo over Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures

Originally made for LWT's The South Bank Show, this is probably one of the most successful of all Merchant Ivory collaborations. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's script sets two collectors (Ashcroft and Pine) and two adventurers (Jaffrey and Sen) after a group of Indian miniatures, hidden away in a glorious but crumbling palace. The owner, the Maharajah of Jodhpur (Banerjee), watches dispassionately as the four scrabble decorously but desperately after his family's fortune. As delicate and as beautiful as the miniatures at its centre, the film poses, in the most acceptable and accessible way, central questions about the function and value of art.