A Passage to India

TCM's Alicia Malone introduces A Passage To India, 1984.

Ben Mankiewicz introduces A Passage To India, 1984.

Indian local doctor in training Aziz (Victor Banerjee), stranded when his ride is hijacked by oblivious English ladies, drops by a mosque where he’s surprised first by Mrs. Moore (Peggy Ashcroft, who was recommended for the role by novelist E.M. Forster), then by her gracious attitude, in David Lean’s A Passage To India, 1984.

Director David Lean’s screenplay takes a predictably cinematic grip on the E.M. Forster novel, introducing Judy Davis as Adela Quested in1920’s London, Peter Hughes the P&O man, Peggy Ashcroft, as Mrs. Moore, mother of her betrothed, opening A Passage To India, 1984.

Director David Lean finishes the train journey to fictional interior Chandrapore, introducing Nigel Havers as colonial official Ronny, greeting his mother (Peggy Ashcroft), his betrothed Adela (Judy Davis), his boss (Richard Wilson), then two locals central to the E.M. Forster story, Victor Banerjee and Art Malik, in A Passage To India, 1984.

Adela (Judy Davis), visiting from England and determined to experience something of the “real India,” is conversing with Dr. Aziz (Victor Banerjee) and scholar Professor Godbole (Alec Guiness) when her fiancè, colonial judge Ronny (Nigel Havers) appears, finding everything inappropriate, in David Lean’s A Passage To India, 1984.

A scene not from the E.M. Forster but from director David Lean’s derived screenplay, working on location, Adela (Judy Davis) has just decided against marrying her fiancè, the magistrate she’s come to India to visit, and undertakes a bicycle ride, wild with suggestion, in A Passage To India, 1984.

A false rape charge threatens British-Indian relations in director David Lean's last movie, A Passage to India (1984).