David Lean's film A Passage to India

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 welleducated 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 sho

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to see the "real" India. Of course, the British never see the "real" India because they are constantly judging it according to British rules and models. Adela claims she is assaulted in the Marabar Caves, and for her, the "real" India is embodied in this assault on her person. Fielding takes the side of the accused in this dispute. When Adela changes her mind and states that Aziz is innocent, she is also ostracized by the British community. The distance between the two communities grows rather than shrinking over time. The distance grows over the years as Aziz also becomes disillusioned with anything British, including his supporter, Fielding. For Aziz, the only course for India is to unite and drive out the British, a view that frightens Fielding in spite of his sympathy for the people of India and his belief in the damage being done by the Raj. In the end, though Aziz and Fielding pledge their friendship, it is clear that they cannot be friends so long as Britain controls India and the Indian people do not control their own destiny. They state their desire to be friends as they ride: "But the horses didn't want it--they swerved apart. . ." (Forster 322). The film does a good job of translating the novel into cinemat

Category: Film - D