A Passage to India (1984)

85% of critics liked it
(20 reviews)
74% of users liked it
(6,344 ratings)

A Passage to India, director David Lean's final film (for which he also received editing credit), breaks no new ground cinematically, but remains an exquisitely assembled harkback to such earlier Lean epics as Doctor Zhivago and Ryan's Daughter. Based on the novel by E. M. Forster, the film is set… More A Passage to India, director David Lean's final film (for which he also received editing credit), breaks no new ground cinematically, but remains an exquisitely assembled harkback to such earlier Lean epics as Doctor Zhivago and Ryan's Daughter. Based on the novel by E. M. Forster, the film is set in colonial India in 1924. Adela Quested (Judy Davis), a sheltered, well-educated British woman, arrives in the town of Chandrapore, where she hopes to experience "the real India". Here she meets and befriends Dr. Aziz (Victor Banerjee), who, despite longstanding racial and social taboos, moves with relative ease and freedom amongst highborn British circles. Feeling comfortable with Adela, Aziz invites her to accompany him on a visit to the Marabar caves. Adela has previously exhibited bizarre, almost mystical behavior during other ventures into the Indian wilderness: this time, she emerges from the caves showing signs of injury and ill usage. To Aziz' horror, he is accused by Adela of raping her. Typically, the British ruling class rallies to Adela's defense, virtually convicting Aziz before the trial ever begins. Though he is eventually acquitted due to lack of evidence (in fact, director Lean never shows us what really happened), Aziz is ruined in the eyes of both the British and his own people-as is Adela. Woven into these proceedings is a subplot involving Adela's elderly travelling companion Mrs. Moore (Peggy Ashcroft), who through a series of plot twists too complex to describe here becomes a heroine of the Indian Independence movement. A Passage to India was nominated for several Academy Awards, scoring wins in the categories of Best Supporting Actress (Peggy Ashcroft) and Best Original Score (Maurice Jarre). A theatrical version of A Passage to India, written by Santha Rama Rau, was previously adapted for television by the BBC in the mid-1970s. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: PG, 2 hr. 43 min.
Directed By: David Lean
Genres: Drama

In Theaters: Dec 14, 1984 Wide
On DVD: Mar 20, 2001

Critic Reviews

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
David Lean's studied, plodding, overanalytic direction manages to kill most of the meaning in E.M. Forster's haunting novel of cultural collision in colonial India.
Variety Staff, Variety
An impeccably faithful, beautifully played and occasionally languorous adaptation of E.M. Forster's classic novel.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Forster's novel is one of the literary landmarks of this century, and now David Lean has made it into one of the greatest screen adaptations I have ever seen.
Vincent Canby, New York Times
The film is very much 'a full theatrical meal,' and one that conveys a lot of 'the multiplicity of life' one seldom sees on the screen these days.
Brian Webster, Apollo Guide
Regardless of what one thinks of David Lean and his old fashioned style, the results here - save perhaps for the casting of Alec Guinness as a Hindu professor - are exquisite.
Brian Webster, Apollo Guide
There is a very nice selection of extras on the disc, starting with a full length audio commentary by producer Richard Goodwin.
Peter Canavese, Groucho Reviews
Lean's visually appealing film frequently connects as a social satire and a mystical melodrama of transgressors looking for footholds in psychically threatening territory.
Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com
Lean isn't on his A-game here, but the film isn't bad.
Kent Turner, Film-Forward.com
Although other cast and crew engagingly recount the filming, there's still a gap with [Judy Davis's] absence.
James Plath, Movie Metropolis
A Passage to India is a visual treat, but it's also the kind of epic that seems painted on a small enough canvas to where it resonates as incident and fable as much as it reflects a grander theme.
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
Lean's swan song is an intelligent adaptation of Forster's complex novel about racil prejudice and sexual repression, flaunting wonderful perfromances from the two leads, Judy Davis and particularly Dame Peggy Ashcroft.
Steve Crum, Video-Reviewmaster.com
Epic, briliantly photographed, but slow David Lean drama.
, TV Guide's Movie Guide
Lean does an excellent job of conveying the repressive nature of British society captured in the novel.
Ian Nathan, Empire Magazine
The film, for all Lean's innate elegance, is strangely remote and unmoving. It could easily have been a Merchant-Ivory film.
, Film4
While the storytelling is rather toothless, A Passage to India is certainly well worth watching for fans of the director's epic style.
, Time Out
Not for literary purists, but if you like your entertainment well tailored, then feel the quality and the width.
Rob Thomas, Capital Times (Madison, WI)
Maybe a little too stately, but still a powerful and beautiful film.

Read all 17 critic reviews

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Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

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Featured Audience Ratings

moon r

In an India seething with anti-colonial fervor versus colonial superiority and "duty", a young Englishwoman accuses an Indian doctor of "the worst". David Lean does everything but star and score the music, in this his final bow. Beyond the obvious politics and… More
In an India seething with anti-colonial fervor versus colonial superiority and "duty", a young Englishwoman accuses an Indian doctor of "the worst". David Lean does everything but star and score the music, in this his final bow. Beyond the obvious politics and racism he leaves us with a human story, one of hopes and aspirations for a better world ... and then he casts a white man as an Indian brahmin. Revealing hypocrisy.
familiar s

The first half of the movie was relatively watchable but the second half was appalling. Why would a woman accuse someone of raping her, and why in God's name would she withdraw it only when she's called to the witness box, is beyond me. Okay, it's because she's… More
The first half of the movie was relatively watchable but the second half was appalling. Why would a woman accuse someone of raping her, and why in God's name would she withdraw it only when she's called to the witness box, is beyond me. Okay, it's because she's honest and she couldn't accept someone being unjustly crucified for a crime that was never committed. So she withdraws everything only and only when she's called to the witness box. Applause for the lady's courage!!! I can understand that she may have made such an accusation because she wasn't well when she made it and might have done so under someone's influence. But at least after recovery, she could have taken back the false charges. Her conscience was probably on leave during the earlier proceedings of the court. The range of my imagination is quite poor at times. I know that such a dramatization is essential to create a greater effect for the movie, but the way this particular part was executed was very poor. Anyway, I liked the way characters were developed and the interactions between them. I'd also like to mention that except for that idiotic part in the movie, I found the rest of the movie well done. Victor Banerjee sucked as Dr. Aziz while Alec Guinness excelled as Godbole, a veteran with foresight and better understanding of the human life.
Pierluigi P

Lean's farewell, a stunning and beautiful tale of prejudice. great soundtrack, grateful performances, an overlooked marvel.
Red L

Story of racism between British and India in the 19th century. Strangest thing is seeing Alec Guiness in the role of a Hindu wise man.
Lanning :

God is . . . God si . . . is/si . . . love . . . And here we have mister fists and fingers himself. A superior screen adaptation of one of my all-time favorite novels. I bet a dollar that Forster would have loved seeing this. What a swan song for David Lean. Banerjee plays Aziz… More
God is . . . God si . . . is/si . . . love . . . And here we have mister fists and fingers himself. A superior screen adaptation of one of my all-time favorite novels. I bet a dollar that Forster would have loved seeing this. What a swan song for David Lean. Banerjee plays Aziz just as I had pictured him. Surmounting or succumbing to prejudice can sometimes be a deadly movie topic, especially when the movie maker wants to "teach" you something, beating a "lesson" into you. This move is not one of those. This movie is one for the ages.
Byron B

Directed by Lean and based on a novel from later in E.M. Forster's career, the common themes of Forster's writings (often adapted by Merchant and Ivory) are clear. A young woman accompanied by an older woman in British society before either of the world wars, encounters… More
Directed by Lean and based on a novel from later in E.M. Forster's career, the common themes of Forster's writings (often adapted by Merchant and Ivory) are clear. A young woman accompanied by an older woman in British society before either of the world wars, encounters something exotic and wants to burst out of the stuffy tight collared restraint that polite society of the time required. In this case the exotic location is India among the British ruling class. It is arranged for the young woman to marry a man, but she learns he does not satisfy her. She is still afraid of total wildness and severing ties with her culture, but in meeting a young Indian doctor who is excited to impress, and an English professor who has been immersed in the foreign culture, she finds adventure. The story and film show the ugliness of racism, injustice, and militant oppression. The movie ends with a court case that could have gone terribly wrong. But instead we are presented with a court system in which we can have faith, if intelligent people who know what they are doing are running the show, and those involved in the case find the courage to be truthful!
Burger S

For all of the hoopla I've heard about this movie/book, it was a big disappointment. Very boring saga about the English trying to behave proper but being very rude and racist to the people of India. I was almost embarrassed to see Sir Alec Guinness made up as an Indian. It was… More
For all of the hoopla I've heard about this movie/book, it was a big disappointment. Very boring saga about the English trying to behave proper but being very rude and racist to the people of India. I was almost embarrassed to see Sir Alec Guinness made up as an Indian. It was not quite as horrible as Peter Sellers playing Charlie Chan or Marlon Brando as a Japanese man in The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956), but close.
Dimitris S

A Passage to the Galaxies.The Indian paths as well,Lean guides us in perfection,what a courageous work of art.A grand finale by a great director,Judy Davis compels the screen,same is Victor Banerjee and the score by Maurice Jarre..

Read all 8 featured audience ratings

Cast

            Judy Davis as Adela Quested

            Victor Banerjee as Dr. Aziz

            Peggy Ashcroft as Mrs. Moore

            James Fox as Richard Fielding

            Alec Guinness as Godbole

            Nigel Havers as Ronny Heaslop

            Richard Wilson as Turton

            Antonia Pemberton as Mrs. Turton

            Michael Culver as McBryde

            Art Malik as Mahmoud Ali

            Saeed Jaffrey as Hamidullah

            Clive Swift as Maj. Callendar

            Ann Firbank as Mrs. Callendar

            Roshan Seth as Amritrao

            Sandra Hotz as Stella

            Phyllis Bose as Mrs. Leslie

            Ishaq Bux as Selim

            Edward Fox
            
            Rashid Karapiet as Mr. Das

            Z.H. Khan as Dr. Pana Lal

            Sally Kinghorn as Ingenue

            H.S. Krishnamurthy as Hassan

            Peter Hughes as P.& O. Manager

            Mohammed Ashiq as Haq

            Moti Makan as Guide

            Mellan Mitchell as Indian Businessman

            Dina Pathak as Begum Hamidullah
See full cast

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