Movies: Ravi Shankar

In the early years of the 20th century, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a British-trained lawyer, forsakes all worldly possessions to take up the cause of Indian independence. Faced with armed resistance from the British government, Gandhi adopts a policy of 'pa...

This is a simple, straightforward tale about the rise and fall of human civilization that focuses solely on four characters: a farmer (Naseeruddin Shah), a weaver (Om Puri), a trader (M.K. Raina), and a woman (Shabana Azmi). At the beginning of the s...

Apu, now a jobless ex-student dreaming vaguely of a future as a writer, is invited to join an old college friend on a trip up-country to a village wedding....

Apu and his family have moved away from the country to live in the bustling holy city of Benares. As he progresses from wide-eyed child to intellectually curious teenager, eventually studying in Kolkata, we witness his academic and moral education, a...

An unconventional biography by Oscar nominee Paola di Florio and Sundance winner Lisa Leeman about Hindu mystic Paramahansa Yogananda who brought yoga and meditation to the West in 1920 and authored the spiritual classic "Autobiography of a Yogi," wh...

"...I was playing it at the Cinematheque, and it got a lot of word of mouth in town. Everybody liked it because we used this really neat trick to put these images on Pat Barrington’s body as she was doing a belly dance. It was just perfect, and it w...

Impoverished priest Harihar Ray leaves his rural Bengal village in search of work. His wife, Sarbojaya, looks after their rebellious daughter, Durga, and young son, Apu. The children enjoy the small pleasures of their difficult life....

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A film about the first benefit rock concert when major musicians performed to raise relief funds for the poor of Bangladesh. The Concert for Bangladesh was a pair of benefit concerts organised by former Beatles guitarist George Harrison and Indian si...

An underpaid middle-aged clerk finds a stone that changes iron to gold on touch. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 2007....

As a memorial to George Harrison on the first anniversary of his passing, The Concert for George was held at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 29 November 2002 . Organized by Harrison's widow, Olivia, and son, Dhani, and arranged under the musical d...

Wealthy landlord Sarkar decides to direct all waste into the village to make space for his real estate project. However, the poor villagers agitate against his plan and the protest is led by Balraj....

Featuring performances by popular artists of the 1960s, this concert film highlights the music of the 1967 California festival. Although not all musicians who performed at the Monterey Pop Festival are on film, some of the notable acts include the Ma...

An experiment on a simpleton turns him into a genius. When he discovers what has been done to him he struggles with whether or not what was done to him was right....

A Film Journey to the Soul of India documents the life of sitar master Ravi Shankar in the late 1960s and early 1970s, following him on his return to India to revisit his guru, Bengali multi-instrumentalist and composer, Baba Ustad Allauddin Khan. It...

Ravi Shankar plays the sitar, while members of the Children's Little Theatre Unit of Calcutta dance. Presents a montage of scenes from 20th-century India. A segment from "India, Haunting Passage," part of the "Esso World Theater" program of 1964....

Rahmat, a middle-aged fruit seller from Afghanistan, comes to Calcutta to hawk his merchandise and befriends a small Bengali girl called Mini who reminds him of his own daughter back in Afghanistan. One day Rehmat receives news of his daughter’s illn...

Filmed over two years in India and the USA, Mark Kidel's award-winning documentary brings together archive footage spanning seven decades of Ravi Shankar's performing life, and provides a definitive account of the late sitar maestro's unique musical ...

Semi-autobiographical story of Conrad Rooks, who travels to France to undergo a drug-withdrawal cure. Flashbacks to the beginings of psychedelia in San Fran. Though initially confusing, as Rooks blends drug-illusion with reality, and cuts color with ...

Scott Hicks documents an eventful year in the career and personal life of distinguished Western classical composer Philip Glass as he interacts with a number of friends and collaborators, who include Chuck Close, Ravi Shankar, and Martin Scorsese....