The film A Passage to India (David Lean, 1984) is a dramatized version of the well-known novel by E.M. Forster, a novel that is considered mysterious in part because it hinges on something secret that happens in the Marabar Caves and that is never explained. The film version also does not explain this event but uses it in the same mysterious way. In unfolding the story of two British women visiting India, director-screenwriter David Lean addresses issues such as the evils of colonialism, the nature of British imperialism, the sexual repression of the era, racial tensions, and misuses of the law.
The story tells of two women, Adela Quested and her companion, Mrs. Moore. They visit the town of Chandrapore with the intent of escaping from the British vision of India in order to find the real country and the real people. Mrs. Moore has her own agenda, for she takes Adela on this trip in order to introduce her to her son and to get the two to marry. Havers, her son, is the town magistrate, a colonial position of authority. Adela does not find the real India so long as she hangs around only with Havers and the British crowd, so she cultivates a friendship with Dar. Aziz, a well educated Indian who socializes with the British but still suffers the stigma of his race. He offers to take Adela to the Marabar caves, and she agrees. When she emerges from the caves, though, she is battered and bloodied, with no clear reason why this is so. Dr. Aziz seems not to know and is shocked when Adela accuses him of raping her.
The subsequent trial divides along racial and social class lines. The English ruling class defends Adela at every turn, and it seems to have been waiting for years for just such an event to occur. Dr. Aziz must face all the disdain of the British as well as the growing rejection of his own people. He has been friendly with English scholars, but this is now lost, though one man does try to stand by him. In the e...