A Passage to India
A Passage to India
Set during the period of growing influence of the Indian independence movement in the British Raj, the story begins with the arrival in India of a British woman, Miss Adela Quested, who is joining her fiancé, a city magistrate named Ronny Heaslop. She and Ronny's mother, Mrs. Moore, befriend an Indian doctor, Aziz H. Ahmed.
Ray Hopkin reviewedFebruary 2, 2025
A great movie, a very David Lean movie. Great performances, awesome cinematography , brilliant score, all things you could say about Bridge over the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago. I thought the build up to the main event was really good, setting up the characters and their motives, making some interesting points about British Colonialism, and its effects on the people living under such priveliged rule. It's slow pace allowed the story to breathe, and the characters to be fully fleshed out. The stand out was definitely Mrs. Moore, as when she leaves the film there's is a definate hole left. The one thing that's impossible to ignore is Alec Guinness and his brown face. I don't think this could be a 'sign of the times' argument, because the 80s wasn't that long ago! But certainly a film that deals with such overt racism really should have done better, especially as Guinness character wasn't that important to the story, and could so easily have been played by an Indian. A staggering decision by both Lean and Guinness that left a sour taste to their respective, brilliant, filmographies.
But, it was a great movie, I loved it.