Volume 31, Number 21 & 22 · January 17, 1985
The Unmysterious East
By Noel Annan
A Passage to India
a film, written and directed by David Lean
E.M. Forster lived after the war in his old college at Cambridge, and when he died in 1970 King's College inherited his literary estate and became his executor. Forster was determined in his own lifetime that no movie should be made of any of his novels. He loathed Hollywood. Knowing this, Santha Rama Rau, whose dramatization of A Passage to India for the stage had pleased him, suggested that she should write a script and the movie should be directed by Satyajit Ray in India. Forster refused permission. When he died, King's was in no hurry to pursue the project since the estate took some time to settle, but eventually the King's dons who were acting as Forster's executors approached Ray. They discovered that he was no longer interested. Shortly afterward Mountbatten's son-in-law, Lord Brabourne, knocked on their door.
Review, 2232 words
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