1942 Lucknow, India

Vimla Mehta

1942

Lucknow, India

Interviewed on September 20, 2019

By Ashley Qin

I saw my first American movie in 1970: Cactus Flower. The actors were Walter Matthau and Goldie Hawn and Ingrid Bergman.

There was a lot of financial stress when we were growing up. We were allowed to see one movie a year. So this was the first English one that my cousin and I went to. 

Lucknow is a very historical, big town. I was in Lucknow’s medical school working as an anesthesiologist. My cousin was a senior geochemist in Lucknow. I got off from work and she got off from work, and we went to the movie. In those days, the transportation was not by car, we were not well enough off to do that. We went by rickshaw.

We got to the Mayfair theater in the afternoon, it was an afternoon show. It was not an evening show because girls in those days, you know, we had to be careful. I was married to a doctor from New Delhi, but I had to go to my medical school in Lucknow to finish my Ph.D. in anesthesiology, so he wasn’t there.

The theater didn’t have any concessions or food in those days. There was an upscale market nearby with a little restaurant inside. That day we got potato cutlets, which just has mashed potatoes inside.

The theater was very small, old-fashioned, but had a very good screen. There were red velvet drapes. It was very posh. The transmission was also really good. That’s why it had such an impact on my memory. I can remember how Goldie Hawn acted; her expressions and words were so clear. 

The movie was about this guy, Walter Matthau — I don’t remember his name in the movie — but this guy was trying to persuade this girl — Goldie Hawn — not to commit suicide. This guy was not married, but he was trying to fake this story where he was acting as a doctor. His nurse was Ingrid Bergman. He asked his nurse, “Can you fake being my wife for 15 minutes?” He needed her to pretend to be his wife so he could be with Goldie Hawn, but his nurse did not want to because she misunderstood and thought he wanted a real marriage. He then explains he doesn’t want a real wife — no ceremony or bedroom kind of things. He just wants to show that he is divorcing her so that he can marry Goldie. The nurse still refuses and goes off dancing with someone else.

I don’t remember the whole movie, as you can imagine, because I saw it in 1970, but it’s a beautiful movie. The story was really good. I was kind of fascinated because when you see your first movie in a foreign language, you kind of get more excited. You know, Goldie Hawn was so pretty and her acting was so superb, and Ingrid Bergman — my god she could dance! She was dancing, ballroom dancing and she was so attractive. And of course Walter Matthau, you know how pretty he is too. He knows how to charm a woman. All I remember is that these three characters were really, really fascinating, the way they were acting. I feel like I should see it one more time so I can relive my memory. It was the first American movie which was available at that time, after all.