Ravi Shankar

Sound

April 7, 1920 (92 years)

† December 11, 2012

Benares, Benares State, British India [now Uttar Pradesh, India]

Biography

Ravi Shankar, whose name is often preceded by the title Pandit and "Sitar maestro", was an Indian musician and a composer of Hindustani classical music. He was the best-known proponent of the sitar in the second half of the 20th century and influenced many other musicians throughout the world.

Filmography

7.6

Gandhi

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 'passive resistance', endeavouring to win freedom for his people without resorting to bloodshed.

7.8

Pather Panchali

Impoverished priest Harihar Ray, dreaming of a better life for himself and his family, leaves his rural Bengal village in search of work. Alone, his wife, Sarbojaya, looks after her rebellious daughter, Durga, and her young son, Apu, as well as Harihar's elderly aunt Indir. The children enjoy the small pleasures of their difficult life, while their parents suffer the daily indignities heaped upon them.

N/A

Devathai sonna kavithai

It is a 2014 Tamil movie

8.1

The World of Apu

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.

7.9

Aparajito

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, as well as the growing complexity of his relationship with his mother.

N/A

The Psychedelic Experience

Experimental movie, where a man comes home and experiences LSD. His kaleidoscopic visions follow, with readings inspired by the Tibethan Book of the Dead.

6.5

Charly

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.

5.9

Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland (1966) is a BBC television play based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. It was directed by Jonathan Miller, then most widely known for his appearance in the long-running satirical revue Beyond the Fringe.

6.5

Genesis

A farmer and a weaver who have both been liberated from enslavement struggle to survive in an arid, desert landscape. To secure basic necessities, they cast their lot with a merchant, who is a man of suspicious intent but provides for them nonetheless. Things change dramatically, however, when their camp is visited by a woman.

6.3

Chappaqua

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 black-and-white and monochrome tinted shots, "Chappaqua" is conventionally constructed with a beginning, middle, and end.

6.8

The Philosopher's Stone

A middle-aged bank clerk happens on a stone with alchemical properties, allowing him to turn steel into gold.

N/A

The Receptionist

A hotel receptionist and a flamboyant married businessman start having an illicit affair which ends abruptly. Things take an unexpected turn when she decides to re-enter his life hell bent on marrying him

5.7

Kabuliwala

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 illness and decides to return to Afghanistan. But before he goes a violent fight with a customer leads to Rehmat killing him. He gets out of prison ten years later. Based on a Rabindranath Tagore story.

5.3

The Sword and the Flute

Visual images consist entirely of Indian miniature paintings, while an off-screen narrator traces the rise of this art form within the courts of Akbar (1542-1605), who united what is now India and Pakistan, and his son Jahangir (1569-1627). Two schools of the miniature paintings, done by anonymous artists, flourished after Akbar established unity and peace across what had been many smaller states: the Moghul (Islamic) school and the Rajput (Hindu) school. The Moghul paintings record the events of the court, while the Rajput school connects physical beauty and, in particular, the longing of women to the transcendent values of the spirit.

10.0

Swapno Niye

Swapna Niye is a 1966 Indian Bengali film, directed by Purnendu Patri.

6.3

Neecha Nagar

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.

N/A

Kalamati

The first film to deal with life in creches in coalmine areas.

6.9

The Flute and the Arrow

Arne Sucksdorff’s ethnographic feature documents the life and rituals of the Muria people in the Bastar jungle of central India, focusing on their traditions, music, and relationship to the natural environment. Presented with Sucksdorff’s lyrical visual style, the film was selected for the 1958 Cannes Film Festival.

9.0

Megh

No description available

8.0

The Psychedelics

"...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 was an the height of the LSD period and all the hippies loved it." - Ed DePriest