Review of A Passage to India (1984) by Harpreet S — 01 Feb 2014

David Lean's "A Passage to India" is a perfect example of where a sketchy screenplay ruins the film; it is based on the novel of the same name by E.M. Forster, which I have not read, but would like to someday. Judy Davis plays Adela Quested, a woman who comes to India from England with the mother of her fiance. It's set in the 1920s during the British Raj, Adela's fiance Ronny is the magistrate of the fictional city Chandrapore. I searched other images of Judy Davis and I did not find her attractive in them, but I was completely in love with how she carried herself as Adela, I was very charmed by her eyes, her almost unseen gestures as she tries to uncover her mysterious character.

This film had enormous potential to easily be one of three best films of Lean; I even had tears in one sequence involving the elderly Mrs. Moore and Dr. Aziz in a mosque. The main conflict begins when Dr. Aziz takes Adela and Mrs. Moore on a tour to see the Marabar Caves, what happens there brings about a trial, which involves political and class agendas as the Indian independence movement is gaining, however that's not really important. As the story is gradually unfolding I was unable to decipher it, it's a muddle as Mrs. Moore says if I remember correctly. What is this film about? Though the characters are descriptive, they are really on an island, one island for each character; that is how detached they are from each other and from the story. The great Alec Guinness plays the elderly Brahmin Godbole quite well, but again I really did not understand his relation to the story. He is just there.

Adela seems to have deep sexual desires and certainly the desire to be loved, I was disappointed that this intimate part of her wasn't really explored, particularly when she is with Aziz at the caves. As the film is over I could not understand what happened between the two, I mean there was certainly intimate tension, but what happened to it after? Aziz's character flip-flops, sometimes he is just a typical Indian as shown in that time and sometimes you feel he has deep lingerings, very confusing. It's uneven in possibly revealing Adela's character and at the same time showing the conflict between Indians and the British at the time. I really wanted to love this film, I did early on actually. I love watching a good story, driven by characters with intimacy who are set in a period drama. Forster in his lifetime prevented anyone from making a film on his novel; I am saddened that Satyajit Ray, who wanted to make an adaptation wasn't allowed to do it.

David Lean adequately shows his love for India, not in "A Passage to India," but in "The Bridge on the River Kwai," with just one monologue as Colonel Nicholson says: "I've been thinking. Tomorrow it will be twenty-eight years to the day that I've been in the service. Twenty-eight years in peace and war. I don't suppose I've been at home more than ten months in all that time. Still, it's been a good life. I loved India. I wouldn't have had it any other way. But there are times when suddenly you realize you're nearer the end than the beginning.".