Alternate Movies

Siddhartha is based on Herman Hesse's famous novel of the same name. The story is the quest of a young Brahmin boy siddhartha who wants to break away from the routine life that he leads and see the outside world. What follows in one man’s quest to know the ultimate answer. Siddhartha's spiritual journey to attain ever lasting peace transforms himself into a saint, carnal pleasure seeker, material wealth seeker and then ultimately to a simple boatman. As a boatman at last he finds his answers and finds peace with himself.

The movie is an exotic indian spirituality story cooked up for the western audience of the early 70's.The character i guess was made to be identifiable with the hippies of the 60's and 70's.The movie is very visual.There are very few dialogues and the story is mostly told in visuals with big time jumps. Guess most of herman hesse’s philosophical thoughts and story narration was sacrificed for the visual narration.

For an indian viewer there isn't much exotic stuff in here. It is just a rehashing of hindu philosophies.




Cast and Credits:

Shashi Kapoor .... Siddhartha
Simi Garewal .... Kamala
Romesh Sharma .... Govinda
Pinchoo Kapoor .... Kamaswami (as Pincho Kapoor)
Zul Vellani .... Vasudeva
Amrik Singh .... Siddhartha's father
Kunal Kapoor .... Hassan, Siddhartha's son
Shanti Hiranand .... Siddhartha's mother

There are a few nude shots of semi garewal and some kissing scenes in the movie.Semi garewal gets the distinction of being first by any indian actress to do them.

The movie is brilliantly photographed by the swedish photographer Sven Nukvist, who has photographed many of Ingmar Bergman movies.The photography might not look that different from the photography of current films. But the fact is this movie was shot in 1972.

Direction by conrad rooks

Music:
Music is by hemant kumar.The music again seemed to have been made to target the hippies. BGM's include various chants and bengali songs.