Having never seen A Passage to India before this Blu Ray release, I was not sure what to expect. I did inquire with someone who had seen the film to give me a brief description of what I was to expect. Basically, my taste in movies is of the basic variety, more mainstream type movies. So, I really had to go into this viewing with a very open mind.

A Passage to India follows Adela Quested (Judy Davis) as she travels to India along with her soon to be mother-in-law Mrs. Moore (Peggy Ashcroft.) Upon arriving in India, they are quickly made aware that the white English in India do not care to associate with the Indian folk and easily consider them second class. Adela and Mrs. Moore are of the opposite as they more than interested in wanting to know about the people of India. Mrs. Moore, during an evening walk of a mosque, meets Dr. Aziz (Victor Banerjee). Aziz is a very friendly gentleman who is more than eager to get to know the British and their culture. Dr. Aziz quickly befriends Mrs. Moore.

Dr Aziz asks Mrs. Moore and Ms. Quested to accompany him on a tour of the caves in India. Shortly after arriving at the caves, Mrs. Moore becomes weak and suggests that Aziz and Adela go by themselves to the next set of caves and enjoy themselves. While at the caves, something happens to Ms. Quested causing her to be bruised and cut up badly. She runs off and is taken back into town by one of the British locals she runs into. Dr Aziz, upon returning to town, is taken under arrested and is charged with rape.

As tensions rise between the British and Indians over if the rape occurred or not, Dr Aziz’s life hangs in the balance and he has to rely on the court to decide his fate.

Video

A Passage to India is presented in 1080p High Definition, within the scope of 1.66:1. Unlike most people, I had not seen Bridge On The River Kwai or anything else ever directed by David Lean so I didn’t have any frame of reference of what to expect from his direction. I have to say, the entire shooting of the film was just amazing. I was very impressed for the most part with the films transfer. The colors were very good given the muted tone of the film (given its 1920s theme.) Some minor film dirt and scratches were noticed but it was never bothersome as it was pretty infrequent. I also did notice grain in several scenes but that was only seen in the blue sky and clouds. No grain to be found anywhere else however. The image quality for a film from 1984 is overall very good.

Audio

The TrueHD 5.1 track is just okay. Most of the audio is center channel for the majority of the movie. The bass did kick in occasionally as I noticed my subwoofer clicking on and off throughout the movie. However, the bass was very subtle. Given that the movie is mostly all talk, center channel is to be expected. The surrounds were in play at times when the movie’s score was being featured.

A True HD 5.1 French track is also available.

The subtitles available are English, French and Spanish.

Special Features

Most of the Special Features are in high definition. The audio for the special features is English (stereo) only.

• Commentary with Producer Richard Goodwin

• Beyond The Passage: Picture-in-Graphics Track

• 7 Featurettes: Reflection of David Lean, E.M. Forster: Profile of an Author, An Epic Takes Shape, An Indian Affair, Only Connect: A Vision of India, Casting a Classic, David Lean: Shooting with the Master

Final Thoughts:

I have to be honest here, for the first hour of the movie, I was bored to tears. There was so much going on that really didn’t seem to have anything to do with the outcomes of the movie. However, the last hour and forty-five minutes the film did pick up and had me interested. Like many of the movies nominated for best picture, they are not my kind of film. A Passage to India, to me, could have been summed up in under an hour. I know I am in the minority here and I can accept that. That is why I can only recommend this to fans of the film or those looking to collect some of the past Best Picture nominations. For myself, I’ll probably never watch it again.