Siddhartha (Ws)

Starring:Shashi Kapoor, Simi Garewal, Romesh Sharma, Pinchoo Kapoor, Zul Vellani, Amrik Singh, Kunal Kapoor, Shanti Hiranand, Holy Sadhus of Rishikesh
Director: Conrad Rooks
Studio: Image Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Siddhartha, adapted from the famous novel by Hermann Hesse, follows the spiritual quest of Siddhartha (Shashi Kapoor), a restless young Brahmin of India who leaves home to find inner peace. The son of a wealthy family, Siddhartha first renounces his possessions and wanders the country as a pilgrim, then indulges in sexual pleasure (with lovely Simi Garewal) and material success, but none of these things gives him what he yearns for. Finally, working as a ferryman across a river, he finds a way of being that calms his spirit. What keeps Siddhartha from being a stilted Cliff Notes version of a literary classic is the gorgeous cinematography of Sven Nykvist, who has worked with Ingmar Bergman, Woody Allen, Roman Polanski, and Louis Malle, among others. His careful eye gives Siddhartha a look that transforms its philosophical searching into a visual poem. --Bret Fetzer

Description

A glorious adaptation of the classic Herman Hesse novel, "Siddhartha" was filmed by Conrad Rooks with legendary cinematographer Sven Nykvist in Northern India. Bewitched by the shimmering beauty and magic of this ancient land, they transformed Hesse's tale into widescreen poetry. A moving evocation of each person's search for the divine within, this is the story of young Brahmin who leaves his wealthy parents to become a "sadhu," a wandering ascetic. He meets and is awed by the Buddha but chooses to follow his own path, which leads him to sensual passion and material wealth. In the end he finds these pleasures empty and abandons them to find enlightenment on an entirely different plane.

Customer Reviews:

Very disappointing.......2007-03-02

I purchased this film to show my high school students who just finished reading the novel. Since they really got into the novel and its overall significance for their own lives, I thought showing the related film would be a good idea. However, I was so very disappointed in this film and its negligent portrayal of the journey of Siddhartha. I'm not even sure I want to show it to them now! The film does very little to capture the symbolism and depth of character found in the novel. The acting, dialogue, and events seem as dry as a story-board with no color. Many of the most profound moments in the novel are omitted, while other moments are altered to make them almost laughable. A film that captures the beauty and true nature of the novel is long overdue. This film appears dated (and I don't mean Gautama Buddha dated) and the acting and character portrayals are VERY 1972. Don't get me wrong, the film may have been "remarkable" for its time, but it would be nice to see a film-maker attempt to capture the true essence of Siddhartha and his life-journey. Besides, a few special effects when Govinda sees the faces of all living things in the image of Siddhartha would be pretty cool!

Not bad, but fails to capture the resplendence of the novel.......2007-02-17

No movie that is even marginally true to the story that Nobel Prize-winning German author Hermann Hesse told in his novel Siddhartha (1951) is without merit; and this modest film is no exception. The problem is, that while Conrad Brooks, who wrote, directed and produced the film, is true to the storyline of the novel and even in some respects true to the spirit of the novel, he fails to bring the power and the resplendence of Hesse's philosophic and spiritual masterpiece to the screen.

What made the novel one of the best ever written is the character of Siddhartha himself. Patterned after the Buddha both in temperament and in experience, Hesse's Siddhartha, "the Accomplished One," grew up amid extravagant wealth and privilege only to dump it all in an effort to find himself. Brooks fails almost immediately when he leaves out the scene from the book in which the young Siddhartha, not wanting to directly disobey his father (and to demonstrate his resolve) stands up all night waiting patiently for his father's permission to leave their splendid estates. This is one of the great "coming of age" scenes ever written and an early insight into Siddhartha's strength of character, but Brooks gives it barely a notice!

Also skirted over too quickly are Siddhartha's years with the samanas in the forest where he practiced meditation and austerities. This part of Siddhartha's life was essential in making him the man he was and in showing us his character. He spent six years with the shamans and gurus of the forest (along with his companion Govinda) and in the end learned everything they knew and more, and yet had not found the answer he sought. (This parallels the experience of the "emaciated" Buddha.)

Brooks does do the meeting with the Buddha well, having us hear his voice but not see him, and then follows that up with Siddhartha's reasons for not following the Buddha, even though he finds no fault with the Enlightened One's teachings. Note that without his actually meeting the Buddha, the life of Siddhartha (which is one of the traditional names of the Buddha) would so closely parallel that of the Buddha that some people might think that Hesse had written a profane life of the Buddha, which might not set well with some Buddhists! (Of course we all have the Buddha nature.)

Siddhartha's life with the courtesan Kamala and the merchant Kamaswami and his spiral into debauchery and sloth is well depicted, although again the ultimate disillusionment that Siddhartha experienced is not as well presented as in the novel. Which brings me to Shashi Kapoor who plays Siddhartha. Although he would go on to be the veteran of well over a hundred films, and although he is appropriately enough Indian as well as tall, dark and handsome and a good actor, he fails to evoke the passion that Siddhartha must have. Siddhartha felt everything in a profound manner, even boredom was profoundly experienced by the Brahmin's prodigal son. Kapoor, especially near the end of the film when he plays an old man, occasionally made me feel that he could be "the Accomplished One," but more often he made me feel that he was holding something back.

Finally, the poetic scene near the end of the novel when, after living with and being guided by Vasudeva, the ferryman, Siddhartha becomes one with the river and falls spiritually into its wisdom, is only a bland shadow of what appears in the novel!

Part of the reason for the failure probably has to do with a limited budget. The film is 83 minutes long, but could easily be twice that long. Part has to do with the selection of scenes and the emphasis on those scenes, and finally part of the reason has to do with the relative inexperience of Brooks who was only directing his second major film (and apparently his last). Certainly the on-location in India cinematography by Sven Nykvist who worked on so many films with Ingmar Berman is not to be faulted. Although not spectacular, Nykvist's camera conveys both the exotic beauty and the poverty of a landscape that could have been India 26 centuries ago.

Make your own path.......2007-01-03

This is a great movie based on the story of Hermann Hesse about Siddharta who is determined to experience enlightenment without following any doctrines or teachers. His friend on the other habd falls in love with the Buddha and decides to follow him and become a swami. A story well told and many great aha moments. Well worth watching. A great movie to watch on a rainy sunday.

Wonderful film, wonderfully shot.......2006-10-27

I stumbled across this and am frankly, somewhat amazed at the negativity of some of the reviews here. I saw this film in its full-screen glory at age 15 or so in an audience with all of four people, and it had an impact like no other movie before or since. Research the film, and you'll find a rather strange story behind Conrad Rooks and how the film was made. Rooks has a very interesting interview included on the DVD. The film largely languished for more than 30 years in a conflict between Rooks and Columbia Pictures before finally finding the light of day again in the late 1990's. Rooks is to be commended for using an Indian cast, Indian music, securing shooting locations previously inaccessible to the West, and employing the marvelous Sven Nykvist as cinematographer. A review at Imdb talks about the effect seeing this movie had on an audience in Sweden in 1974, and I echo what they say. I also love the Hesse book, and think the DVD makes a great compliment to it.

This film does not reach the high standards of the novel.......2006-09-11

I have loved Hermann Hesse's novel Siddhartha for many years, having first read it in psychology graduate school in 1974 and then 10 years later. But all those who know and love Hesse's wonderful novel Siddhartha know that it is primarily a novel about the quest for inner enlightenment. Even though we follow the main character SIddhartha through the struggles with his father, his years of meditation in the forrest as a Sadhu, his dialogue with the Buddha, his years of love-making with Kamala, and finally his work and meditation as a river ferryman; yet the novel is centered around the spiritual growth and inner direction of the main character.The plot is secondary to the inner growth of the main character. In fact, it has less plot than almost any novel since the tensions are not between characters and situations but primarily between Siddhartha and himself in his quest for truth.

Thus, this is not an easy novel to turn into a film. How do you show the quest for inner enlightenment? How do you keep the interest of the viewing audience when the plot-line is minimal?

The writers, directors, and cinematographers for this film relied on minimal dialogue and beautiful cinematography of Northern India's bridges, castles, villages, forrests, and rivers.

Unfortunately this was not enough. The actors appear to have never read the actual novel and thus both actors that portray Siddhartha and Kamala seem wooden, stiff, and over-stated rather than realistic.

The relationship between Siddhartha and his father was not fully developed. The relationship of Siddhartha and Kamala was a primary focus and anchor of the film and yet the actors handled it like day-time-TV soap-opera melodrama.

Scenes with the historic Buddha were some of the better parts of the film in that the filmakers had the Buddha voice-over essential clear summaries of Buddhism without ever seeing the face of the Buddha.

However, overall subtlety of emotion and thought is lost and thus the film is really a disappointment to those who know the novel well.

Average customer rating:

Siddhartha

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Product Description

This film would appeal to those people who see or find or sense themselves on a similar"path" or quest, and may give much confirmation or food for thought about the possible turning points, or unknown or unexpected "detours" that one finds themselves engaged in along the way. This film offers a message, a very sound message about the quest of the human spirit its struggle for higher fulfillment, which i add Is the quest of the human being.

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