Film Review: A Passage to India (1984)

Film Review: A Passage to India (1984) | Ecency

(source: tmdb.org)

Film makers, even the great ones, seldom end their careers on a high note. Famous British director David Lean did that with his last film, 1984 period epic A Passage to India. The achievement was even greater considering not only Lean’s advanced age, but also nearly decade and half long hiatus caused by devastating failure of his previous film Ryan’s Daughter.

Lean’s achievement looks even greater considering that he has taken a difficult task of adapting eponymous 1924 novel by E. M. Forster, known as one of the most important works in history of English literature. The plot is set in 1920s, in a time when India used to be the jewel in the crown of British Empire. The beginning takes place in England, where young woman Adela Quested (played by Judy Davis) accompanies her future mother-in-law, elderly Mrs. Moore (played by Peggy Ashcroft) on a voyage to India, where Ronny Heaslop (played by Nigel Havers), her son and Adele’s fiance, works as magistrate in the city of Chandrapore. Both women are fascinated by the sights and sounds of a strange country, but also surprised to find that Ronny and the rest of British people in the city don’t want to have anything to do with local Indian population. Their desire to meet Indians and discover "real India" get them in touch with Dr. Aziz (played by Victor Banerjee), Indian Muslim physician who always admired English people from afar and is delighted with opportunity to actually befriend them. He organises trip to famed Marabar Caves in the vicinity, but it quickly turns into disaster when Aziz and Adela end alone near one of the caves and Adela suffers mental breakdown. The incident is interpreted as aftermath of attempted rape and Dr. Aziz is arrested. The trial soon divides city in two camps – British who want to see Aziz punished and Indians who see Aziz as victim of injustice and martyr for emerging independence movement. Richard Fielding (played by James Fox) appears to be the only Englishman convinced of Aziz’s innocence and, as a result, gets ostracised by his own community.

Production of this film was troubled, mainly due to constant quarrels between Lean and members of the cast. Among them the most vocal was Judy Davis, partly displeased with the way director has treated her character and partly because considered Lean’s mores and directing style too outdated. Lean’s relationship with his old associate Alec Guiness, who appears in the semi-comical role of Hindu sage Professor Narayan Godbole, wasn’t any better and two men ceased to be on speaking terms after Lean had cut most of Guiness’ scenes from the film. Despite such bad blood, A Passage to India displayed some fine acting performances. This included Bengali actor Victor Banerjee, who delivered moving and effective performance of a man who displays naive enthusiasm, despair and righteous anger, although some critics might be tempted to see it as over the top. There are less such doubts in case of Peggy Ashcroft, grand dame of British theatre whose role of a wise old lady earned her Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Lean also used his old associate Maurice Jarre to write the music and the soundtrack, although barely heard in the film, ultimately managed to win Oscar. Lean was, however, most interested in scenes that give his story an epic scope. Despite the lack of truly epic events in the plot, Lean managed to direct some impressive scenes out of seemingly banal events like military parades, railway trips through Indian countryside and street protests. The film’s prolonged epilogue set in Kashmir also provided Lean with opportunity to provide viewers with picturesque images of mountains and lakes. While all that gave A Passage to India an undeniably epic character, it made it also slightly overlong, at least for modern audience which is unaccustomed to old-school style of epic films.

Bigger complaints against Lean can be made because of his script. Although very faithful to the novel, Lean departed from it in one crucial detail. Unlike Forster, who deliberately remained vague about what really happened at the cave and allowed different interpretations, Lean took different approach and portrayed Aziz as kind man and victim of racist bigotry. This simplified the story and characters and made A Passage to India surprisingly preachy, while the explanation for Adela’s actions is brought in another prolonged scene that lacks subtlety in its sexual symbolism. However, despite its flaws, A Passage to India is still a very good film which would reward all those viewers who are patient enough and willing to enjoy epics like those that aren’t made any more.

RATING: 7/10 (++)