A Passage To India

At 75, David Lean, whose epics THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, and DOCTOR ZHIVAGO garnered 19 Oscars, returned to work after a 14-year absence with this adaptation of the E.M. Forster novel about sexual repression and racial prejudice in 1924 India. Set in the fictional town of Chandrapore, the story concerns Adela Quested (Judy Davis) who has settled in India and is to marry Ronny Heaslop (Nigel Havers), a town magistrate. She is befriended by the charming Dr. Aziz (Victor Banerjee), but it's a friendship that ultimately leads to tragedy. Lean does an excellent job of conveying the repressive nature of British society captured in the novel. Altho...