The topic of interfaith marriages has always been difficult to address in India. It has become even more challenging now. In twenty-first-century India, religious differences have turned into political ones. Indians want their children to marry within their own community. Marriages between people of different castes, even people speaking other languages, are discouraged. There are subcastes within castes. Although due to increasing education, employment, and urbanisation, marriages between different communities are gradually gaining acceptance, there is still a long way to go.

The film, ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’, a 1967 American romantic comedy, very sensitively deals with the issue of inter-community marriage. The film depicted an interracial marriage in a positive light, more than half a century ago, at a time when it was still illegal in 17 states of the USA. Anti-miscegenation laws (statutes that prohibited marriage or sexual relations between people of different races) were struck down by the US Supreme Court, just six months before the film was released. It was shot well before that.

A 23-year-old white woman, Joanna Drayton, returns to her parents’ home after a vacation in Hawaii. She is accompanied by Dr. John Prentice, a 37-year-old black widower. After a short 10-day romance, they have decided to get married. Joanna’s parents, father Matt Drayton, a newspaper editor, and mother Christina, who owns an art gallery, are both liberal. Joanna has been brought up in a very progressive environment. She is surprised, therefore, that her parents are not happy with her decision to marry a man of a different race. Her mother soon accepts the relationship, but it takes a little bit of persuasion to convince the father. He is concerned about the repercussions of the relationship – the problems the couple are likely to face. He is thinking like a father, and not like an evolved liberal. Monsignor Mike Ryan, Matt Drayton’s golf buddy, is amused at the situation. His friend’s principles are being confronted by reality. He challenges Matt’s liberal credentials, bringing a sense of humour and moral guidance.

We get perspective from both sides in the film. Dr John’s parents, the Prentices, are shocked to find out that Joanna is white. The mother is initially uncomfortable with the idea but eventually supports her son. When Dr John’s father objects to his son marrying a white girl, he says, “Dad, you see yourself as a coloured man, I see myself as a man.” That, for me, is the defining moment in the film. Prejudices and arguments for and against such a marriage are handled sensitively and often with humour. The film is not preachy.

Dr John Prentice seems to be an ideal person with practically no flaws. The only possible objections to his marrying Joanna would be his race or ‘pigmentation’, in the words of Matt Drayton. Dr John tells the Draytons that they must consent to the marriage or he will not marry their daughter. It reminded me of so many Hindi films.

The dialogues were the highlight of the film. One of my favourite sets of dialogues was between Matt Drayton and Dr John Prentice. It is funny and conveys the message without being preachy.

“Matt Drayton: Have you given any thought to the problems your children are going to have?

John: Yes. And they’ll have some. And we’ll have the children. Otherwise I don’t know what you would call it, but you couldn’t call it a marriage.

Matt Drayton: Is that the way Joey feels?

John: She feels that every single one of our children will be president of the United States and they’ll all have colorful administrations. Well, you made her, Mr. Drayton. I just met her in Hawaii.

Matt Drayton: But how do you feel about that problem?

John: Well, frankly, I think your daughter is a bit optimistic. I’d settle for Secretary of State.”

The black, feisty, domestic help of the Draytons, Tillie (Isabel Sanford), is not happy at all with the prospect of Joanna marrying a black man. During her outburst, she talks about “black power”. She sees Dr. Prentice as a black man trying to “get above himself.”

Dr John Prentice says to Joanna’s parents, “It’s not just that our colour difference doesn’t matter to her; it’s that she doesn’t seem to think there’s any colour difference.” It is a powerful statement against the othering of people. John’s mother accuses Matt Drayton and her husband of having forgotten what it was like to fall in love. He replies to her in his final speech. Expresses his love for his wife in words that could move even a person with a heart of stone.

The film was produced and directed by Stanley Kramer and written by William Rose. It stars Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, and Katharine Hepburn, and features Katharine Houghton as Joanna. According to Stanley Kramer, the actors agreed to act in it after hearing the premise, even before hearing the script. Their conviction was evident in the final result. Spencer Tracy was very ill during the filming. He died 17 days after the final shot was recorded. Katherine Hepburn never saw the completed film, saying it would be too painful for her. The performances by all the actors were phenomenal.

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner was a box-office success throughout the United States. The film was nominated for numerous film awards. It won two Oscars at the 40th Academy Awards. These were for Best Actress (Katharine Hepburn) and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay (William Rose). The film also received multiple nominations, including Best Picture. 

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner is a film about loving someone, no matter what society thinks. Irrespective of what the laws are. I would love to see such films made in India. It is not that we don’t have talented directors or that there is a lack of capable actors, or that we don’t have stories. But will anyone take the risk of making it? The message of love being love, no matter who it is between, needs to be taught today, more than anytime else.

Photos and text by Prerna Jain.