Columbia TriStar Home Video has announced that they are preparing to release David Lean’s A Passage To India (1984) on DVD this March.

This film is based on E.M. Forster’s classic novel, an emotional and deeply personal story of love and class struggle in 1928 India. Adela Quested (Judy Davis) travels to India to visit her fiancé, who is the city magistrate of Chandrapore. She is accompanied on the adventure by his mother Mrs. Moore (Peggy Ashcroft, who received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress), an elderly woman who is appalled at the treatment of the Indians by the British who rule and occupy Chandrapore. Both women befriend a young Indian man, Dr Aziz (Victor Banerjee), who—over-stepping the accepted boundaries between the classes—invites the women on a picnic excursion to the Marabar caves. In a strange turn of events, the young doctor is accused of attempting to rape Miss Quested. What actually did happen in the Marabar caves is the central riddle of this lush, engrossing film.

Directed by David Lean (‘Lawrence of Arabia’, ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’), the cast includes Judy Davis, Art Malik, Saeed Jaffrey, Peggy Ashcroft, James Fox, Alec Guinness, Victor Banerjee, Anne Firbank, Nigel Havers, and Richard Wilson.

The disc comes with an anamorphic widescreen transfer, with Dolby Digital 2-channel Surround in English. Subtitles are available in English, Spanish, and French. Extras include talent files, production notes and the trailer.

Columbia will release ‘A Passage To India’ on March 20th. The suggest retail price is $29.95.