( CNN ) -- With ticket sales closing in on $ 100 million , the surprise hit of the year is `` The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel , '' a film about seven English retirees who travel to India to take up residence at the rundown Marigold Hotel , which , according to its misleading brochures , will provide them with inexpensive comfort in their remaining years . But what makes `` Marigold Hotel , '' which is directed by John Madden of `` Shakespeare in Love '' fame , far more interesting than its box-office success is how it has defied the patronizing reviews of critics -- including those of The Times of India and The Telegraph in England -- who have categorized it as little more than entertainment for people in their 50s starring actors in their 70s . Indeed , how patronizing the critics have been is reflected in the fact that review after review , starting with `` Marigold Hotel '' stars , Maggie Smith and Judi Dench ( both of whom are 77 ) , has made a point of dwelling on the ages of the ensemble cast . The popularity of `` Marigold Hotel '' tells us that unlike the critics , today 's audiences do n't find the struggles of the old and middle-aged less worthy of their attention than those of the young . But the charm of the film is n't confined to its depiction of the elderly trying to make the most of the rest of their lives . At the heart of `` Marigold Hotel '' lies a compassion that contrasts starkly with the coldness the film 's retirees experienced in the England they left behind . The youthful manager of the Marigold Hotel , played with comic brilliance by Dev Patel ( the lead in `` Slumdog Millionaire '' ) , may have misled his retirees about the quality of his hotel , but he has underplayed his own decency and enthusiasm . There is a long tradition in English literature of pointing up the failures of British society by contrasting life at home with life abroad . E. M. Forester 's 1908 novel , `` A Room with a View , '' which in 1985 was successfully adapted for the screen , provided a searing critique of the stuffiness of Edwardian life by allowing its young heroine to find romance in Italy . `` Marigold Hotel , '' which is based on Deborah Moggach 's 2004 novel , `` These Foolish Things , '' follows this same tradition , as it captures the English fascination with warm climates . In this case , however , the Forester novel with which `` Marigold Hotel '' has the most in common is his 1924 masterpiece , `` Passage to India . '' In Forester 's story it is the Indians , over whom the British then ruled , who show the greatest capacity for love and friendship . In `` Marigold Hotel , '' the English retirees find a gentleness in the city of Jaipur that was not present in their homeland . In contrast to the British of the 19th century , the retirees of `` Marigold Hotel '' are not out to extract fortunes from their new land . They are instead out to preserve dwindling incomes and make peace with their past . Not all of them succeed , but enough of them do to suggest modern India , even with its traffic jams and elephants and camels in the streets , is a land of opportunity : . Muriel Donnelly ( Maggie Smith ) , a housekeeper who after years of service was fired from her job by the family she worked for , finds that in India she can get the hip replacement surgery she needs without waiting and , despite herself , she slowly loses the racial bigotry she brought with her . Evelyn Greenslade ( Judi Dench ) , a widow whose husband has died , saddling her with debt that forces her to sell her home , gets employment helping out at an Indian call center and in the process frees herself from the condescending pity of her children . Graham Dashwood ( Tom Wilkinson ) , a gay High Court judge , who left India full of shame when he brought his young Indian lover into disgrace , finds that he is welcomed back as an old friend . Douglas Ainslie ( Bill Nighy ) , who has fled to India with his quarrelsome wife Jean ( Penelope Wilton ) because their daughter lost most of their savings in a failed start-up , realizes that he is better off when his wife leaves him and returns to England . The randy Madge Hardcastle ( Celia Imrie ) and the even randier Norman Cousins ( Ronald Pickup ) learn that in India age is not the barrier it was in England to the sexual adventure they are seeking . Can these happy endings last ? `` Marigold Hotel '' never provides a final answer just as it rarely allows tragedy to creep in . But the `` Marigold Hotel '' does not need to offer they-lived-happily-ever-after reassurance to succeed . It is enough that , thanks to their change in scenery , the film 's central characters have refused to resign themselves to ending their lives in quiet despair . What in 1947 on the eve of independence India 's first prime minister , Jawaharial Nehru , called his nation 's `` Tryst with Destiny '' has become for the retirees of the `` Marigold Hotel '' a tryst with old age as a result of their new country and its people . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Nicolaus Mills .
Despite patronizing critics , `` Best Exotic Marigold Hotel '' is surprise hit movie of the year . The film has been a huge success in India and was released on December 26, 2014. Movie 's popularity shows audiences do care about older people 's lives . Mills : English literature often points up failures of British society by contrasting life abroad . `` Marigold Hotel '' reveals the compassion in India that was lacking in life in England .