A Passage to India

Rating:
Summary: Reviewer A. Kalbag a racist
Review: He says the movie is racist, and yet makes numerous racist remarks conerning Indians taking over Britain.
He needs to be removed from this site as a reviewer.

In further evidence of his ignorance:
The latest population census shows British Indian population at approximately 1 million out of approx. 58 million.
There are an additional 800,000 Pakistani and 300,000 Bangladeshi. This is hardly a takeover in population.
Additionally, to lump all these ethnicities into "Indian" is racist. I am sure that 800,000 Pakistanis would concur.

You have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting in character.



Rating:
Summary: A LEAN DAVID
Review: I am an Indian. I adore the way Forster wrote about India, and the way in which directorial stalwarts like Merchant-Ivory captured that vision on 8mm. For anyone who's followed David Lean's movies in the chronological order, The Passage to India is almost a criminal gyp, for it does not have a strong (or any) storyline to brag about, nor does it capture the glorious vistas of natures as Lawrence of Arabia or Dr Zhivago had managed.

Somehow, a true sense of India, either as a place or as a people, fails to come alive. While non-Indian viewers may enjoy the mild research that may have gone into the set and the props, it is really nothing special for anyone who knows what India must have looked like. For all the genius that David Lean was, he too fell for the standard shrinkwrapped clichés about India that any western director indulges in. For insatnce, the music that one hears at the market is frequently south Indian (Madras Presidency at that time), but in reality this would NEVER have been heard within 1000 miles of Bombay.

The (mis)casting of non-Indians for most of the Indian characters -- a fact that other reviewers have noted too -- is not simply a sore point, it is practically gross. Case in point: an atrocious Alec Guinness trying to pass off as a Brahmin Professor, while Victor Banenerjee struts about absurdly over-eager in the key role of Dr. Aziz. Why this was necessary is beyond me.

Then, the plot, or lack thereof. Really, very little happens during the course of the movie. The narrative is super-turtle, lacking the zing with which Merchant-Ivory have brought other books of Forster to life. The story to me was not about Adela's sexual conflicts; it was about an appreciation for the raw energies of India and how it transforms our very souls. I don't feel Lean's screenplay gives us the chance to discover Forster's India.

The film picks up a click towards the ending, which is full of the subtleties one expects of a writer of Forster's cadre, though there remains an absence of crucial detail about what should be the key event of the story. Peggy Ashcroft is great, but one can't help but wonder whether an Indian director could have made more from the same material.

Overall, the movie is borderline idiotic, watchable once perhaps (if your history professor forces it down your throat) otherwise there's a lot better to learn about India from: "Shakespeare Wallah", "Bombay Talkie", "Heat and Dust" etc etc.

Rating:
Summary: I was brought up to tell the truth....
Review: I first read A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster several years ago, and fell in love with the book. Forster is also the author of HOWARD'S END, ROOM WITH A VIEW, WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD, MAURICE, all stories set in Edwardian England and one of it's colonies or expatriate communities like Italy. If you haven't read Forster, do so. His writing is beautiful and complex, and his characters are richly drawn. He had an incredible understanding of the nuances of human thought and behavior and was able to translate it to the written page. His female characters are incredibly real. I have never read another male author with a greater sensitivity for the female psyche. Forester was published by his friends Virginia and Leonard Woolfe, and he had much to say about sexuality (both homoerotic and heteroerotic), sexism, racism, and classism.

A PASSAGE TO INDIA--the film--is a work of art by David Lean. Lean was able to faithfully capture Forster's characters and set them in a gorgeous framework--India at the turn of the century when it was governed by the British Viceroi. You will recognize some of the Indian actors, including the young man who plays Harry Kumar in JEWEL IN THE CROWN. Lean's film will also remind you of the Merchant-Ivory productions of other Forester books, though Lean produced sumptuous period films earlier.

Actors who appear in PASSAGE appear in other period pieces based on books by Forester. For example, the Austrailian actress Judy Davis who plays Adela Quested in PASSAGE also stars in ANGELS and Sir Alex Guiness starred in another film based on a Forester book with James Wilby who also starred in the film version of MAURICE. Dame Peggy Ashcroft plays Mrs Moore, Adela's friend and the mother of Adela's fiance played by Nigel Havers.

What did happen in the Marabar caves? The film hints at the possible explanation for Miss Quested's behavior. The book is a tad less forthcoming. Two people know the truth--which one tells the truth is not completely clear. Do you think you know the truth? Read the book and you may be less certain. The film and the book are true classics that you can read and see over and over, each time arriving at a differnt "truth." The film and the book both contain ambiguity that might not resonate well with those who like neat tidy tales. Karma is.

The DVD transfer of this beautiful film is clear, crisp, and colorful--just like India--or at least the India I know based on Edwardian literature and my fertile imagination.

Rating:
Summary: Feelings of Closure for an old India Hand.
Review: I really believe that the movie is about the feelings of closure that the good people from england DID NOT get when Indian Nationalism turned Millitantly anti british.

The movie is made in a Very Mature fashion by an old India hand who is very much in touch with his (Indophile) International Audience....Isn't it Marvelous when Mature old artists of David Lean's caliber bring their Understanding of Humans, White and Indian Cultures(Alec Guiness! ) , History and Interpersonal relationships to make a movie which in its own original and Idiosyncratic way is spiritual, Forgiving and Deeply Insightful.

Rating:
Summary: psychology and meteo
Review: In 'A Passage to India', director did something very antithetical to the earlier motion pictures he had produced. In 'Dr. Zhivago' and 'A Bridge over the River Kwai', he specializes in the filming of meteorological distinctions; from the Siberian colds to the thropical fever of Pasific regions(note that filming of Doctor Zhivago in Spain does not spoil this the least). However, meteorology is almost a personality in 'A Passage to India'; but of a trivial nature. In the movie, a Brahmin(Alec Guinness) speaks of many phenomenological signs of karma and does not mention a certain specificity of the drought; however, on many occassions he strolls around barefooted and sits next to the pool, his legs ducked in the water. An Indian physician(Victor Banerjee) suffers from a seasonal fever and there mounted a large-sized fan over the banch in the court of the magistrate. There is almost always a situation of perspration and dehydration; followed by distress. Before the picnic at Marabar, there gone through the particulars of the refreshments of the picnic party, whisky and soda for the gentlemen and wine for the ladies. In a magnificient scene, Mrs. Moore dies on a ship back to Britian and they flip her off the board to the waters of the sea; symbolically back to the spiritual congregation of the dead. At the end, Indian physician notes that all this happened because an English lady could not brook a little midday sun(remember the song, 'mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun'). This story considers the dialectics of moisture(here life and cultivation) and rut(basic or untamed sexualism), and partly politisizes Albert Camus's 'Outsider' and its existantialism but in a very distinct method and dialogism.

Rating:
Summary: "India forces one to come face to face with oneself."
Review: In David Lean's last film, his adaptation of the 1924 novel by E. M. Forster, he abandons Forster's strong moral and political stand on the damaging effects of colonialism in India, in favor of a wider ranging, panoramic love story. Although the novel centers on the friendship between the charming and sociable Dr. Aziz (Victor Banerjee) and Briton Richard Fielding (James Fox), one of the few British functionaries who appreciates the Indians as people, Lean focuses instead on Adela Quested's search for adventure, and maybe, love.

Adela (Judy Davis) has come to Chandrapore with Mrs. Moore (Dame Peggy Ashcroft), the mother of her soon-to-be fiancé, Ronny Heaslop (Nigel Havers), the City Magistrate. When Mrs. Moore and Adela meet the congenial Dr. Aziz at Fielding's house, Aziz impulsively offers to take them to the Marabar Caves, in which they have expressed an interest. This uniquely bi-cultural trip is a disaster from the outset, and when Adela, a severely repressed and neurasthenic woman, hears echoes in one of the caves, she panics, racing hysterically to the "safety" of the group waiting for her below, and leading people to believe that Aziz has tried to rape her. Aziz is arrested and tried, an event that exacerbates the deteriorating relations with the local population and initiates a crisis.

Though the film is lushly photographed in many exotic locations, Lean's changes to the novel's plot and themes leave the film without an emotional center. Adela (Davis) is too hysterical and repressed to generate much sympathy, and her desire for adventure stems more from boredom and naivete than from wanting to know the country or its local population. Mrs. Moore (Ashcroft), is a sweet, kind woman, but she is not strong enough to stand up to her son or the British officials who dominate the culture, and when she leaves India, the moral focus of the film vanishes. Aziz, enthusiastically played by Banerjee, makes a major personality change almost overnight, thereby removing himself as the most sympathetic character in the film. Fielding, representing the "nice" British functionary, plays only a peripheral role in the film, and Sir Alec Guiness, in the role of Godbole, an Indian mystic, is a caricature.

More than an hour elapses before the main action begins in this 163-minute film, and there is not enough character development to illustrate Forster's strong political stand. Nominated for eleven Academy Awards, including Best Actress (Davis), Cinematography (Ernest Day), Direction (Lean), and Best Picture, this pretty film secured only two Oscars--Best Supporting Actress for Dame Peggy Ashcroft, as Mrs. Moore, and Best Original Score by Maurice Jarre. Mary Whipple

Rating:
Summary: ANOTHER CLASSIC IN THE LEAN (AND FORSTER) CANON.
Review: In his brilliant exploration of the question he ultimately posed in HOWARDS END (who shall inherit England?), E. M. Forster gifted us with A PASSAGE TO INDIA. The novel, and the movie, provide deceptively simple characters to carry Forster's views along...the arrogance of a British-dominated culture meddling where it once again does not belong; the impossible melding of certain classes and/or temperaments; and the ultimate sacrifice or tragedy that must occur in order for the madness to cease. Into the mix Forster adds (as he did with Ruth Wilcox in HOWARDS END) the mysterious female entity (the enigmatic Mrs Moore) who seems to be in touch with all elements, earthly and spiritual. Director David Lean could not have done better in casting Dame Peggy Ashcroft as this luminous woman; she becomes the movie's triumphant center, its moral conscience and all-seeing eyes, and at the same time leaves us with one of the most memorable performances in recent cinema. Excellent support also comes from the brilliant Judy Davis (in a nearly impossible part to play, Davis succeeds almost frighteningly well) as the hysterical Miss Quested, dashing Victor Banerjee as the harried Dr Aziz, and James Fox as the character caught between two clashing worlds (much the same way Margaret Schlegel was in HOWARDS END).

David Lean has created so many memorable films and setpieces it seems almost redundant to objectify them, but let it be said the sequence here with the visit to the ominous Marabar Caves is one of his best--beautifully choreographed, perfectly timed, and with just enough mystery to inspire as much discussion as the novel. How often does that happen?

It may not be a rousing action epic, but it will leave the discerning viewer with much to think about and should inspire several viewings to take in all the levels of meaning. A most rewarding film experience.

Rating:
Summary: Nearly as good as the great novel it is based on
Review: It's always dangerous to try and adapt a great work of literature to the screen, but David Lean's attempt with "A Passage to India" works about as well as possible. Those who express boredom here are probably not very attuned to the East/West conflicts and contrasts that are the subject of the novel and film. It's not just a political clash--it's one of the spirit and philosophy and the way eastern and western cultures see their worlds. There is a pivotal scene in the book and film involving Mrs. Moore et al in the Marrabor(?) caves. A huge echoing "ooohm" sends the British matriarch running in horror from the cavern--followed by the possible attack on Miss Quested. I'm not sure the movie COULD communicate the significance of that moment. That huge empty "ooohm" (in the novel) brilliantly captures the frightening clash between the Western, rational, Christian view of the world and the Eastern view that embraces mysticism, "unknowability" and the value of "nothingness." Mrs. Moore comes face-to-face with that "nothingness" and it is so diametrically at odds with her rational world that it threatens her very being. It changes her life. It's a metaphorical moment in the novel that can produce chills. In the movie, the realized scene can't carry all the symbolic weight--it just comes off as weird. So that huge missing element aside, the movie is very well acted, brilliantly designed, and despite what some others have posted, intriguing to watch. But again, if you have little understanding of or interest in the philosophical differences between East and West, this may not be your cup of tea (preferably Darjeeling).

Rating:
Summary: Much More Than A Travelogue
Review: Judy Davis stars as a young Englishwoman who journeys to India in the 1920's with her fiance's mother. They stay with her fiance, who is a magistrate for the English government. Both women are unimpressed with the English colonists' upperhanded treatment of the Indians, and they wish to make friends with them. The opportunity arises through an Indian doctor who arranges to take them on a tour of some famous caves. Unfortunately for all concerned, it's a tour that changes everyone's lives forever. I assumed prior to viewing that this would be little more than a well-photographed travelogue pieced together by a thin plot. Although the plot is not as involved as I would like, the film does have some substance to it. It explores with honesty the strained relationship between the Indians and the British. Virtually no attempt was made by the British to understand the culture and character of those they ruled. There is also a sense of sexual tension present that surprised me, but it added another layer to the story. Peggy Ashcroft gives the standout performance as the most sympathetic character, the elderly Englishwoman who sees too clearly what is going on within the country and her family. Victor Banerjee, as the doctor, gives a heartfelt performance with quite an arc of development. Judy Davis has the most difficult role as the conflicted young woman, and she makes the most of it. Director David Lean perfectly captures the atmosphere with some truly breathtaking shots. The script contains some excellent dialogue, although the film continues for almost a half an hour after the real climax. It needed a little re-structuring. Also, Alec Guinness pops up from time to time as an Indian professor, a character which really adds little to the film and could have been eliminated. But these are small criticisms for what is otherwise a well-acted, beautifully crafted film.

Rating:
Summary: Splendid Cinematography in lush locations
Review: Lean's final movie is not as great as many of his previous works, but it can still be a contender. An engaged woman travels to India and witnesses a culture clash between the English and the Indians. Her guide is accused of raping her while on a visit to the pictoresque Marabar caves. Only the young woman knows the truth. This film contains gorgeous images of the Indian surroundings and has a good cast.