''Cotton Mary'' is a 1999 film co-directed by

Ismail Merchant Ismail Merchant (born Ismail Noor Muhammad Abdul Rahman (25 December 1936 – 25 May 2005)) was an Indian film producer, director and screenwriter. He worked for many years in collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions which included Directo ...

, best known as the producer half of

Merchant Ivory A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as industry ...

, and the Indian actress and writer

Madhur Jaffrey Madhur Jaffrey CBE (née Bahadur; born 13 August 1933) is an Indian-British-American actress, food and travel writer, and television personality. She is recognized for bringing Indian cuisine to the western hemisphere with her debut cookbook, ...

, who also co-starred. It is a sensual film, shot in coastal South

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Plot

Lily Macintosh (Scacchi), an upper-class

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

woman living in India, has struggled since the birth of her child and is in need of a nanny. An Indian military nurse known as Cotton Mary (Jaffrey) takes the post; she is an ambitious woman who is eager to be part of British society. She seems kind at first, but her true nature gradually reveals itself as she manipulates everyone around her to get what she wants.

Cast

Greta Scacchi Greta Scacchi, OMRI (; born 18 February 1960) is an Italian-Australian actress. She holds dual Italian and Australian citizenship. She is best known for her roles in the films '' White Mischief'' (1987), '' Presumed Innocent'' (1990), '' The Pla ...

as Lily MacIntosh *

as Cotton Mary *

James Wilby James Jonathon Wilby (born 20 February 1958) is an English actor. Early life and education Wilby was born in Rangoon, Burma to a corporate executive father. He was educated at Terrington Hall School, North Yorkshire and Sedbergh School in Cu ...

as John MacIntosh *

Sarah Badel Sarah M. Badel (born 30 March 1943) is a retired British stage and film actress. She is the daughter of actors Alan Badel and Yvonne Owen. Life and career Badel was born in London to actor, Alan Badel and actress, Yvonne Owen. She was educated ...

as Mrs Evans * Riju Bajaj as Mugs *

Gerson da Cunha Gerson da Cunha (16 June 1929 – 7 January 2022) was an Indian advertising professional who was also a stage and film actor, social worker, and author. He headed the Indian market communications agency Lintas and also worked for J. Walter Tho ...

as Doctor Correa *

Joanna David Joanna David (born Joanna Elizabeth Hacking; 17 January 1947) is an English actress, best known for her television work. Life David was born in Lancaster, England, to Davida Elizabeth (''née'' Nesbitt) and John Almond Hacking. In 1971, she ...

as Mrs Smythe *

Neena Gupta Neena Gupta (born 4 June 1959) is an Indian actress and television director who works in Hindi films and television. Known for her work in both art-house and commercial films, she won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for pl ...

as Blossom (Mary's sister) *

Sakina Jaffrey Sakina Jaffrey (born February 14, 1962) is an American actress. Early life Jaffrey was born in New York City, the youngest daughter of Indian-born parents, actress and food and travel writer Madhur Jaffrey, and actor Saeed Jaffrey. Her parents ...

as Rosie *

Gemma Jones Jennifer "Gemma" Jones (born 4 December 1942) is an English actress. Appearing on both stage and screen, her film appearances include ''Sense and Sensibility'' (1995), the ''Bridget Jones'' series (2001–2016), the ''Harry Potter'' series ( ...

as Mrs Freda Davids *

Firdausi Jussawalla , image = Statue of Ferdowsi in Tus, Iran 3 (cropped).jpg , image_size = , caption = Statue of Ferdowsi in Tus by Abolhassan Sadighi , birth_date = 940 , birth_place = Tus, Samanid Empire , death_date = 1019 or 1025 (87 years old) , dea ...

as Mr. Panamal * Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal as Matron *

Nadira Nadira is a given name common in Asian countries. It may refer to Given name * Nadira (actress), an Indian actress of the 1950s and 1960s, best known for her roles as a temptress * Nadira (Pakistani actress), Pakistani actress in Punjabi and Urdu ...

as Mattie *

Prayag Raaj Prayag is a historical name of the area near the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers in the modern-day city of Allahabad in northern India. It may also refer to: Places Localities in Allahabad * a locality in the city of Allahabad; t ...

as Abraham *

Captain Raju Raju Daniel (27 June 1950 – 17 September 2018), better known by his stage name Captain Raju, was an Indian army officer and Indian actor. He acted in more than 600 films in various languages, including Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannad ...

as Inspector Ramiji Raj *

Shobha Vijay Mahalakshmi Menon, best known by her stagename Shobha (23 September 1962 – 1 May 1980), was an Indian actress best known for her work in Malayalam and Tamil films. At the age of 17, she won the National Film Award for Best Actress for her rol ...

as Ayah 2 *

Virendra Saxena Virendra Saxena (born 23 November 1951) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi theatre, film, and television. He is an alumnus of the National School of Drama. Saxena is known for his character roles as well as his unique voice. He has acted in ...

as Joseph * Surekha Sikri as Gwen * Laura Lumley as Theresa MacIntosh * Matteo Piero Mantegazza as Baba * Olivia Caesar as Baba * Arshia Rafique as Mira * Philip Tabor as Henry Campbell-Jones * Luke Jones as Charlie * Susan Malick - Bunny Rogers *

Hamza Hamza ( ar, همزة ') () is a letter in the Arabic alphabet, representing the glottal stop . Hamza is not one of the 28 "full" letters and owes its existence to historical inconsistencies in the standard writing system. It is derived from ...

- Fisherman *

Poornima Mohan Poornima Indrajith (née Poornima Mohan; born 13 December) is an Indian actress and television presenter who works in mainly in Malayalam cinema. Apart from that, she is a fashion designer. She is married to actor Indrajith Sukumaran. Early an ...

as Receptionist * Txuku Iriarte Solana as Sylvie D'Costa

Reception

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

the film has a score of 52% based on reviews from 18 critics. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

the film has an approval rating of 36% based on reviews from 33 critics.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

gave the film two out of four stars.

References

External links

Cotton Mary
* 1999 films 1999 drama films British drama films English-language French films Films directed by Madhur Jaffrey Films directed by Ismail Merchant Films set in India French drama films Merchant Ivory Productions films 1990s English-language films 1990s British films 1990s French films {{1990s-UK-film-stub