"The new film has several Merchant Ivory hallmarks, namely convincing use of period clothing, cars, hairdos and music. And Sivan - given his terrific eye for cinematographic detail - uses far more restraint than expected in the use of plush landscape to establish mood," adds Bernstein.

The Chicago Tribune branding it a typical Merchant-Ivory formula says: "The movie's not awful. It's merely disappointing." But it also found some "good stuff".

"The scenery is absolutely stunning. The vistas - of forests, villages, mist-topped mountains - are spectacular, and the camerawork is unerring," it says, adding: "This is all to be expected, as director Sivan, who also photographed the film, is best known as an accomplished cinematographer."

In an accompanying piece in the Washington Times, Torrance cites US television star Linus Roache, who plays an ambitious plantation owner in the film, as saying that this is a character with whom it is difficult to sympathize but adds that he had a way to make the man human.

"I grew up in the south of England, and some of my mother's friends ... were ex-Raj from India," he says. "They had a certain love for life and there was a certain character they embodied that I remember very clearly. That was my touchstone for where I went with the character."