Never the twain shall meet

This review by me, had appeared in the latest edition of our in-house magazine, "Kshitij"

Night has descended on Chandrapur. The moon bathes the old mosque with its silvery light. The twinkling stars are mute witnesses as Dr. Aziz washes his limbs in the marble pond. The river glistens in the moonlight. Dr. Aziz gazes across at the town, as the faint notes of a Nadhaswaram float through the night. Clad in white silk, the ghostly figure of Mrs. Moore walks in. Aziz’s opposition to a woman’s entry into the mosque, is driven away by her kindness. “God is here!” she remarks. Thus begins Aziz’s friendship with Mrs. Moore and her companions – a relationship that would lead then through the doldrums of political and social upheaval.

Based on E.M. Forster’s epic, master storyteller David Lean’s “A Passage to India” tells the story of young Adela Quested (Judy Davis) who embarks on a journey to India to meet her fiancé, Ronny Heaslop (Nigel Havers), the city magistrate of Chandrapur. Accompanying her is Ronny’s mother, Mrs. Moore (Peggy Ashcroft). They want to “see the real India” and get to know the locals, much to the chagrin of Ronny. Through the kind school superintendent Mr. Fielding (James Fox), they strike up a friendship with Dr. Aziz Ahmed(Victor Banerjee) and Professor Narayan Godbole (Sir Alec Guiness). Ever keen to impress the rulers and get into their good books, Dr. Aziz hosts an excursion to the nearby Marabar Caves. Things go wrong during the trip and Aziz finds himself arrested on the charge of attempted rape, leveled by Miss Quested. The trial results in an outrage among the colonials as well as the locals, and finally turns into a clash of cultures between the “oppressor” and the “oppressed”.

“A Passage to India” features an ensemble of some of the finest actors of the time. Both, Judy Davis and Peggy Ashcroft give excellent performances as the British ladies, coming into their own in the latter half of the film. However Ashcroft scores over her younger compatriot, as she transforms into a person who trusts her beliefs but is unsure to stand by them. James Fox just walks along easily through his part. Dr. Aziz’s irritating zeal to ape and impress the white masters is excellently brought out by Banerjee, though he fails to effectively portray Aziz’s transformation into a self-respecting person in the latter half. Among the other Indian actors, Art Malik as Aziz’s friend is irritating with his boisterous dialogs, and Roshan Seth, in the little screen time given to him, never fails to hold fort against the others. The surprising choice of Sir Guiness as the enigmatic and eccentric Godbole strikes a discordant note. Though he looks the part, lethargy or a lack of interest highlights his portrayal of Godbole, and a character so pivotal to the turning point of the story disappears from the minds of the viewer.

What makes the movie truly a masterpiece is the vividly colorful canvas that David Lean paints India as. From the moment when King George V steps through the arch of The Gateway of India, to Aziz staring at Fielding’s car disappearing down the chinar-laden avenue of Srinagar, the film is a treat to the eye. Through Lean’s eyes, we see an India that’s far from the maddening crowds of our cities. The visuals are impressively used to convey the underlying theme of conflict of cultures. The British quarter is plush with immaculately laid roads, rows of beautiful bungalows and splendid gardens whereas the Indians swarm around crowded bazaars full of colorful flower garlands, peacock feathers and even dead bodies draped in white. They live in dilapidated houses amidst the dirt roads filled with puddles. Where the colonials dress in immaculate but drab white coats, the Indians drape themselves in vibrant colorful costumes. A tad too far it might seem but it works in bringing out into the open, the east-west divide. The scene at the temple might not be in the book, but it effectively brings out the emotions of repressed sexuality in Adela Quested. The pleasant sunny days give away to a torrential downpour, as the case against Dr. Aziz is dismissed and Adela emerges out of the courthouse to witness the boisterous crowds. With the newly discovered spirit of independence the mood of the town has changed like the weather.

“A Passage to India” was David Lean’s comeback vehicle after a 14-year hiatus since the critical failure of “Ryan’s Daughter”. It was the swansong of the great director who gave us epics like “Lawrence of Arabia”, “The Bridge on the River Kwai” and “Dr. Zhivago”. For all its critical success, the filming was not without controversy. David Lean’s already strained relationship with Sir Alec Guiness deteriorated further when Lean cut off most of Guiness’s screen time. Guiness never spoke to him for the rest of his life. Not many people are aware that the setting of the Marabar Cave was in the villages of Savandurga and Ramanagaram near Bengaluru. Environmentalists had a field day accusing Lean of blasting the natural rock formations to create the caves.

It is ever difficult to do justice to an epic novel on screen, but Lean’s attempt at filming EM Foster’s landmark is laudable to a large extent. “A Passage to India” is however, not a movie for those who would just like to spend a lazy evening watching a nice movie. The film is remarkably long, and might tax the patience of the average film buff. The ardent book lover in me also found it difficult to accept that Lean adopted the “All’s Well That Ends Well” finale for the movie. Perhaps this is where Lean fails. The book ends with the tone of the awakening of the Indian within Aziz, when he explains to Mr. Fielding that they cannot be friends until India is free of the British Raj. Though he is truthful to the underlying theme of the book throughout the movie, he fails to hold out the uniqueness of the cultures to the end - to quote Kipling, “Oh! East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet!”