A Passage to India (1984)

Director:

David Lean

Writers:

E.M. Forster (novel)
Santha Rama Rau (play)
(more)

Release Date:

25 January 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama

Tagline:

David Lean, the Director of "Doctor Zhivago", "Lawrence of Arabia" and "The Bridge on the River Kwai", invites you on . . .[A Passage to India]

Plot:

Cultural mistrust and false accusations doom a friendship in British colonial India between an Indian doctor, an Englishwoman engaged to marry a city magistrate, and an English educator.

Plot Keywords:

Country Club | Place Name In Title | Asia | Country Name In Title | India

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 18 wins & 24 nominations

Cast

Judy Davis	...	Adela Quested
Victor Banerjee	...	Dr. Aziz H. Ahmed
Peggy Ashcroft	...	Mrs. Moore
James Fox	...	Richard Fielding
Alec Guinness	...	Professor Godbole
Nigel Havers	...	Ronny Heaslop
Richard Wilson	...	Turton
Antonia Pemberton	...	Mrs. Turton
Michael Culver	...	Major McBryde
Art Malik	...	Ali
Saeed Jaffrey	...	Advocate Hamidullah
Clive Swift	...	Major Callendar
Ann Firbank	...	Mrs. Callendar
Roshan Seth	...	Advocate Amrit Rao
Sandra Hotz	...	Stella
Rashid Karapiet	...	Das
H.S. Krishnamurthy	...	Hassan
Ishaq Bux	...	Salim
Moti Makan	...	Guide
Mohammed Ashiq	...	Haq
Phyllis Bose	...	Mrs. Leslie
Sally Kinghorn	...	Ingenue (as Sally Kinghorne)
Paul Anil	...	Clerk of the Court
Z.H. Khan	...	Dr. Panna Lal
Ashok Mandanna	...	Anthony
Dina Pathak	...	Begum Hamidullah
Adam Blackwood	...	Mr. Hadley
Mellan Mitchell	...	Indian Businessman
Peter Hughes	...	P & O manager
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
John Michie	...	Bit Part (uncredited)

Directed by
David Lean

Writing credits
E.M. Forster		(novel)
Santha Rama Rau		(play)
David Lean		(screenplay)

Produced by
John Brabourne	....	producer
Richard B. Goodwin	....	producer (as Richard Goodwin)
John Heyman	....	executive producer
Edward Sands	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Maurice Jarre

Cinematography by
Ernest Day		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
David Lean

Casting by
Priscilla John

Production Design by
John Box
Herbert Westbrook		(uncredited)

Art Direction by
Cliff Robinson		(as Clifford Robinson)
Leslie Tomkins
Herbert Westbrook
Ram Yedekar

Set Decoration by
Hugh Scaife

Costume Design by
Judy Moorcroft

Makeup Department
Eric Allwright	....	makeup artist
Elaine Bowerbank	....	hair stylist
Jill Carpenter	....	makeup artist
Vera Mitchell	....	hair stylist

Production Management
Rashid Abbasi	....	unit manager: India
Jim Brennan	....	production manager
Shama Habibullah	....	production manager
Barrie Melrose	....	production supervisor
John Downes	....	production manager (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Patrick Cadell	....	assistant director
Christopher Figg	....	assistant director
Ajit Kumar	....	assistant director
Nick Laws	....	assistant director
Arundhati Rao	....	assistant director

Art Department
Albert Blackshaw	....	construction manager: India
Ron Coleman	....	construction manager: UK
Eddie Fowlie	....	props
Bert Hearn	....	property master: UK
Mickey Pugh	....	props
Steve Short	....	props
Frank Billington-Marks	....	assistant property master (uncredited)

Sound Department
Jeremy Baylis	....	assistant dialogue editor
Ron Butcher	....	sound engineer
Michael A. Carter	....	sound recordist
Peter Dansie	....	assistant sound editor
Graham V. Hartstone	....	sound recordist
Jack T. Knight	....	sound effects editor
Nicolas Le Messurier	....	sound recordist
Dick Lewzey	....	sound recordist (as Richard Lewzey)
Archie Ludski	....	dialogue editor
John W. Mitchell	....	sound recordist (as John Mitchell)
Keith Pamplin	....	boom operator
Winston Ryder	....	sound editor
Lionel Strutt	....	sound recordist

Special Effects by
Robin Browne	....	effects

Stunts
Richard Graydon	....	stunt coordinator (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Robin Browne	....	photography: second unit
Frank Connor	....	still photographer
Frank Elliott	....	focus puller
John Fletcher	....	second camera operator
Roy Ford	....	camera operator
W.C. 'Chunky' Huse	....	grip (as Chunky Huse)
Martin Kenzie	....	clapper loader
Alan Martin	....	electrician
Bill Pochetty	....	electrician
Chris Pinnock	....	camera operator (uncredited)
Nigel Seal	....	assistant camera (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Rosemary Burrows	....	wardrobe mistress
Keith Morton	....	wardrobe master

Editorial Department
Kees T. Hooft	....	assistant editor (as Kees 'T Hooft)
Ron Lambert	....	color timer: USA
Eunice Mountjoy	....	associate editor
Anne Sopel	....	assistant editor
Alf Wharton	....	color grading: UK

Music Department
Robin Clarke	....	music editor
John Dalby	....	composer: theme "Freely Maisie"
Maurice Jarre	....	conductor

Transportation Department
Pamela Wells	....	transportation

Other crew
Pamela Allen	....	contact: London
Mohini Banerji	....	liaison: Delhi
Charles Cannon	....	production accountant
Eleanor Chaudhuri	....	production secretary: India
Eddie Fowlie	....	location manager
Diana Hawkins	....	publicist
Christopher Palmer	....	assistant: Maurice Jarre
P.N. Parthasarathy	....	government liaison: India
Pat Pennelegion	....	production assistant
Brioni Pereira	....	location secretary
Germinal Rangel	....	couturier
Rex Saluz	....	location accountant
Maggie Unsworth	....	continuity
Marcus Wilford	....	customs liaison
David Cherrill	....	location manager (uncredited)
Yeti Jindal	....	location manager (uncredited)
Lee Katz	....	production consultant (uncredited)
Richard Morrison	....	title designer (uncredited)
Kevin Phelan	....	unit projectionist: Mercury Theatres, London (uncredited)
Thomas Thanangadan	....	production assistant (uncredited)

Production Companies

• EMI Films
• Home Box Office (HBO) (in association with)
• Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1984) (USA) (theatrical)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (2003) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Columbia TriStar (USA) (laserdisc)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2006) (Germany) (DVD)
• MGM Home Entertainment (UK) (video)
• RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video (USA) (laserdisc)
• Tec Home Vídeo (19??) (Brazil) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Blowup  stills processing
• Capitol Records  soundtrack
• Mayflower Recording  adr recording
• National Maritime Museum  ship models and paintings
• Optical Film Effects Ltd.  titles
• Peerless Camera Company  opticals
• Pinewood Studios  post-production
• Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The  music performed by (as The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra)
• Studios CTS  music recorded at

Runtime:

163 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English | Hindi

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:L | West Germany:6 (f) | Brazil:Livre | Norway:12 | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Argentina:Atp | Australia:PG | Chile:TE | Finland:K-11 (DVD rating) | Sweden:11 | USA:PG | Ireland:PG | UK:PG | Singapore:PG | Netherlands:AL

Filming Locations:

Bangalore Palace, Bangalore, Karnataka, India

Company:

EMI Films

Trivia:

David Lean's first (and last) film after a 14-year hiatus from the industry. He was so devastated by the negative reviews of Ryan's Daughter (1970), he dropped out of the filmmaking scene.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: At the end of the film, as Dr. Aziz writes a letter, a festival with fireworks is going on outside his window. The colors red, green, and purple all appear simultaneously at two separate intervals, indicating studio lights instead of fireworks.

Quotes:

Dr. Aziz H. Ahmed: [to Ali and Hamidullah when Fielding visits] No, he does not need THREE chairs! He is NOT THREE Englishmen!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Nearly Complete and Utter History of Everything (1999) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Tea For Two

Lean's silent scene suggests reason for court case.

Films based on novels (as in this case) must rely on screenplays which condense the material, and supply either voice-overs, or visuals to explain what is going on in a character's head. Usually, a voice-over is a cop-out. David Lean has provided a brilliant substitute for a voice-over in the scene where Adela wanders on her bicycle into the bush to discover a Hindu temple. A central mystery in the book as well as in the film is the ambiguity of the cause for the court case. Forster said that judgment was up to the reader. Lean was a reader, and in my view, he made his decision, and provided us with a clue in that scene (which is not in the book). Here is that scene: Adela leaves the safe British compound on an exploratory trip with a bicycle. She leaves the highway, and cycles down a path through the weeds. The sign- post, which had appeared quite natural when she looked at it, now looks like a Christian Cross when she leaves the road and goes down the path. The music changes from a major key to the minor, suggesting mystery, or menace. She is leaving her familiar culture and riding into the unknown. She sees a fallen sculpture. A voluptuous sculpture. She doesn't turn back. As she rides farther, the weeds grow higher. She is being engulfed by India. She dismounts as she approaches a copse, and walks into the shadows. She sees a ruined Hindu temple covered with erotic sculptures. Amourous couples are coupling. She stares at these apparitions, so abandoned, and so alien to her proper Victorian up-bringing. She is attracted by the spectacle, but she is frightened by her attraction. Suddenly she hears a noise, and looks up to see a troop of monkeys. They chatter menacingly at her and begin to scamper down the temple, over the erotic sculpture, and in panic she flees. Could the monkeys symbolize that emotional, sensual, animal nature that lives in everyone but is supposed to be suppressed in Englishwomen (and American ones, for that matter!)? Are they saying, "This is our land, the land of emotion; you do not belong here"? India attracts her. It awakens hidden desires. It menaces her. She flees to the familiar, visibly shaken. Back at the bungalow, with her fiancé, she says "I want to take back what I said at the polo," which was that she wanted to delay the wedding. She was so frightened by the feelings rising in her as she tasted a bit of Indian culture that she wanted to put a stop to passion by marrying! And all of that was said in the film without words. It provides us with a rationale for believing she later suffered an hallucination, which is at the core of the plot.