NEW Passage To India (DVD)

This is the last film David Lean directed. (David Lean is of "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bridge on the River Kwai" fame.) Based on the classic novel by E.M. Forster, this movie tells of a story of British racism in India during the early 1900's. A young woman, Adela Quested, travels to India to visit her fiance. Traveling with her is her fiance's elderly mother, Mrs. Moore. Mrs. Moore is utterly astonished at how the British treat the Indians, and even shows shame at her own son's ill treatment towards them. Her son is the magistrate. Mrs. Moore and Miss Quested befriend an Indian doctor, Aziz Ahmed. Aziz is overwhelmed at how friendly Mrs. Moore and Miss Quested are towards him and in his excitement he plans a day trip to the mysterious Marabar caves with them, to help show them around India. While there, inside the mystifying caves, something happens to Miss Quested and Aziz is accused of raping her. What follows is a court battle as well as a battle for the inner personal truth. Synopsis aside, I was horrified at how the British treated the Indians. I had never really thought of it until watching this movie. For shedding some historical light, even if it is historical-fiction, I give this movie two thumbs up, as well as give it four stars for completely weaving me into the story. In the beginning, I was slightly wary that it might turn out to be a boring historical-fiction film, but quite the contrary. I was glued to the "tube" in my anticipation to find the fate of the characters in this movie. The movie was completed in 1985 and it took over 30 years to see it completed. In the beginning, Forster did not want to sell the screen rights to the play for fear the movie would be seen as either pro-British or pro-Indian. I will admit that while watching it I despised the British's treatment of the Indians so perhaps it wasn't as objective as Forster had hoped, but what is there to be objective about in unfairness?

This movie will keep your interest throughout, both through its plot and its very good cinematography. Racism, friendship and human values are some of the strongest points that come out of this movie, which will get the viewer acquainted with some exotic scenery in India. Well transferred into the DVD, well worth seeing.

This is one of my favourite novels in high school.

It's a book on humanity stressing goodwill as a bridge in human communication. Ron's mother, Mrs Moore, instead was the supreme model of human understanding. She readily took off her shoes upon entering a mosque at night when there was scarcely any people around and when all British treaded upon practically everything that was local. It was also in her honour that the Bridge Party with the locals was arranged. She never saw the British Raj's attitude towards the locals appropriate. After her departure and at the trial of Dr Aziz, those who attended the court chanted, "Mrs Moore, Mrs Moore..." She became one of their goddesses. Years later when her younger son and daughter visited India and ran into Dr Aziz after his ordeal, they were nevertheless given special treatment...

Right inside the ring was, of course, Mr Fielding and Dr Aziz who all along showed much understanding instead of conflicts. They became friends and Dr Aziz even offered his stud to Fielding, the very one that he was in use of. It was until the hallucination of Miss Quested that Dr Aziz was taken aback. Fielding was a minority, but hat was the right start to human understanding. The Ron's boss was just in the background, no more important than the India Professor. Well, it's hard to say whether it's essentially an Indian or British novel.

The novel is so full of symbolism and imageries. There were substantial narratives every now and then and the decriptions were full of intricacies and the themes were rather estatic, broadly divided into several chopped up sections. It takes little imagination to think of what Marabar Caves have to offer in terms of drama. It's so dull and monotonous.

As such it's rather difficult to rendered this novel into a movie. David Lean showed more depth if not more resources in his treatment than Dr Zhivago. It's brilliant work if one is well versed with the novel itself and it's really rewarding. But with regret, as pointed out by some reviewers, the result may not be equally impressing. To say the least, the central theme is not dramatically attractive enough.