Raga
Cast & Crew
Howard Worth
Ravi Shankar
Alla Rakha
Yehudi Menuhin
George Harrison
Lakshmi Shankar
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In Indian classical music, raga is a tonal framework of melodic formulas, progressions, rhythmic patterns and set of rules, on which the performer is able to compose or improvise. Mastering this ancient tradition requires both spiritual and mental discipline. The documentary highlights the life and music of Indian performer and composer Ravi Shankar, a master of the raga, and how his heritage has shaped his beliefs and influenced his music. The film sketches Shankar's early years as a dancer in Paris, during which he was a self-described spoiled "dandy," and his difficult decision to focus on the art of playing the sitar, a complicated Indian musical instrument. Shankar is shown with his beloved musical guru, Ustad "Baba" Allaudin Khan, with whom he studied for many years as a disciple and with whom he formed a close and sacred bond, and Shankar is also seen with his religious guru during an outdoor ceremony. Shankar explains that, in the past, a strict dedication was expected by one's teacher and through this discipline, he believes, the soul and depth of Indian music is conveyed. However, Shankar fears that the tradition will be lost forever because of the indifference of the young people in his native country. With gentle dignity, Shankar explains that his music contains the essence of his people's history, beliefs and daily life. Several sequences feature the cities and rural landscape of India, including the river Ganges at sunset. Native inhabitants are shown performing rites and ceremonies, including holy men chanting in a Hindu temple. Shankar is shown participating in a formal ceremony, in which he becomes the guru of a young musician, and he and other Indian musicians are seen teaching in India and California, in both private and group settings. The film documents Shankar's acceptance speech when he is conferred an honorary doctorate degree, a duet between Shankar and violinist Yehudi Menuhin, as well as a session in which Shankar mentors rock musician George Harrison. Shankar explains that he had always dreamed of bringing the music and traditions of India to the West. Although he is pleased that he has opened a door between Western and Indian cultures, Shankar notices the impatience of the young people of the West, who want to learn to play a whole raga within a few weeks, where traditionally it takes many months to learn. As Shankar questions his part in how Indian customs and music have been diluted by the naïve and over-enthusiastic reception in the West, the film presents Western and Indian images superimposed over each other, underscored by an increasingly raucous mixture of rock music and Indian music, mingling until the sound is cacophonous. At a quiet moment near the end of the film, Shankar is shown walking along a beach. Although he expresses his pride in his abilities and accomplishments and his love for his fellow man, he asks himself if the terrible distortion of his beloved music and traditions could have been avoided. Aware that one cannot simply brush the surface of a culture to understand it, Shankar hopes to convey to others the depth of his music. He concludes that he believes in Nada Brahma , that the sound is God.
Director
Howard Worth
Cast
Ravi Shankar
Alla Rakha
Yehudi Menuhin
George Harrison
Lakshmi Shankar
Kamala Chakravarty
Ustad Allaudin Khan, Babashri-tatmaharaj
Salil Chakravarty
Shambhu Das
Satya Devpwar
Dikshatar
Dipak
Kerala Kalamandalam: Kathakali Dancers & Musicians
Gopal Krishna
Uma Shankar Misra
Vinay Bharat Ram
Pera Brent
Students & Staff Of Kinnara School Of Indian Music
Jitendra Abhisheki
Shamim Ahmed
Indranil Bhattacharya
Hari Prasad Chaurasia
Abani Dasgupti
Datar
Goopi Mohan Dutta
Kamal Ganguli
Shankar Ghosh
Zakir Hussein
Ashish Khan
Bismillah Khan
Fakir Mohammad Khan
Mohammad Mishkin Khan
Sabri Khan
Kartick Kumar
Sharad Kumar
N. C. Mullick
Parab
Palghat Raghu
N. Ramani
Taranath Rao
Vijay Raghava Rao
Shiv Kumar Sharma
Thakkar
Richard Bock
Stephen Haas
Paul Mccandless
Glen Moore
Lennie Pogan
Harvey Saltberger
Ralph Towner
Collin Walcott
Micky Dolenz
Crew
Jimmy Allen
Nancy Bacal
Nancy Bacal
Tony Barsha
Cecile Starr Boyajian
Ed Brown
Shambhu Das
Nick Dorsky
John Dowland
Gerry Feil
Pat Firpo
Bill Franz
Tikki Goldberg
Karen Greenfield
Gary Haber
Wally Hill
Jay K. Hoffman
Paris Jamal
Nobuko Kimura
Chris Newman
Ved Parkash
Mike Rothenberg
Sovendu Roy
Jennifer Ryan
George F. Schutz
Lakshmi Shankar
Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar
George Silano
Malcolm Vinson
Collin Walcott
Collin Walcott
Howard Worth
Merle Worth
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of the film was Messenger Out of the East. Although there is an indiscernible copyright statement onscreen, the film was not registered for copyright. Nancy Bacal's onscreen credit reads: "Screenplay & Associate Producer." Opening credits list major crew members, as well as the cast from Ravi Shankar to Ustad Allaudin Khan, who was Shankar's musical guru and is introduced in the film as "Baba." In the end credits, the screen is divided vertically. On the left under the heading "East," persons are listed who appeared in sequences filmed in India. The right side, under the heading "West," lists persons who are shown in the California sequences.
A list of crew members follows the cast, followed by a list of names and organizations without a heading, who were probably being acknowledged for their assistance in the making of the film. The credits end with a list of musicians, divided onscreen under the headings, "East" and "West," in the same manner as the cast and acknowledgments. The film presents some black-and-white photographs of Shankar's early life in addition to footage from concerts in which he performed. Portions of the film are narrated by Shankar. The film begins and ends with scenes from a concert performance by Shankar and his fellow musicians, interspersed with brief shots of audience reactions.
As mentioned in the film, Bengali-born Shankar (1920-) began as a classical Indian dancer, a career for which his older brother Uday was famous, and played sitar for Uday's dance troupe. As a teenager, Ravi danced in Paris, where he met classical violinist Yehudi Menuhin, who also appears in the film. In 1938, he began a long and disciplined tutelage under his musical guru Ustad Allaudin Khan (who appears prominently in Raga) after which Shankar worked as a composer and radio music director in India. In the mid-1950s, he began performing in the Soviet Union and in the West in classical music venues such as the Edinburgh Festival and Carnegie Hall. In the mid-1960s, Shankar met and became a mentor to George Harrison (1943-2001), of The Beatles, who was experimenting with the sitar. Their relationship brought Shankar to the attention of younger audiences, for whom he played at Woodstock and the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival and subsequently became an idol of the "hippie" movement.
As Shankar explains in the film, the explosive way his popularity grew in the West led, in some cases, to a superficial misrepresentation of Indian music that linked it to yoga, drugs, Tantric sex and counterculture phenomena. In response, he wrote an autobiography, My Music, My Life, in which he covered many of the ideas that are presented in Raga. He continued to teach, forming a Los Angeles, CA branch of the Kinnara School of Indian Music, and brought other Indian performers to the attention of the West. Nicknamed the "Godfather of World Music," by Harrison, with whom he created the first major musical charity event, The Concert for Bangladesh, Shankar is preeminent as a pioneer for bringing the music of India to the rest of the world.
Although a purist in his performance of traditional Indian music, as a composer, Shankar has been interested in jazz and other Western music forms and in cross-cultural collaborations. Shankar gave lessons in Indian music to jazz performers Don Ellis and John Coltrane, and has performed with musicians as diverse as composer Philip Glass, flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal and shakuhachi master Hozan Yamamoto. Shankar has composed and recorded music for Hollywood films and the concert hall. Among the many accolades Shankar has received from all over the world are several honorary doctorates of music, Grammy Awards and with George Fenton, an Academy Award nomination for Best Musical Score for the 1982 movie Gandhi. Shankar has a son by the daughter of Baba, who was his first wife. He also has two daughters, the musicians Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones.
An April 18, 1968 Daily Variety news item reported that Messenger Out of the East, a documentary feature based on Shankar's life, was being shot in India by Perdan Films, Inc. According to a May 1968 Variety article, the executive producer and head of Perdan Films, Jay K. Hoffman, was a Manhattan concert impresario who handled Shankar's U.S. concert bookings and promotion, and represented the West Coast branch of the Kinnara School of Indian Music.
According to the May 1968 Variety article, cinéma verité director D. A. Pennebaker approached Hoffman about making a film about Shankar, but Hoffman and his associates were not interested in his approach to the film. Instead, according to the article, they wanted the film to reflect the "meaning of Shankar himself," Indian culture and its influence on Western culture. Although it is clear that Hoffman had significant input in making Raga, neither he nor Perdan films are credited onscreen in the crew and company credits. However, the ending credits contain a card reading, "In association with Jay K. Hoffman Productions."
Although the Box Office review reported that the film was shot over a two-year period, May and July 1968 Variety articles reported that principal photography occurred between January and July 1968. An April 1968 Daily Variety article, which listed Nancy Bacal and Jimmy Allen, respectively, as associate producer and photographer, mentioned that sequences in which Menuhin and Harrison appear had already been shot in the U.S. The film was shot in California and in Benares, Bombay and other locations in India. The May 1968 Variety article stated that the budget for Raga was in the mid-six-figure range. Although Apple Films (successor to Beatles, Ltd.), which was a company founded by The Beatles, had previously produced the 1967 television production Magical Mystery Tour and two feature films both released by UA, the 1968 Yellow Submarine (see below) and the 1970 Let It Be, Raga appears to be the first film the company picked up for distribution.
A June 1968 Hollywood Reporter article reported that musician Ali Akbar Khan would appear in the film; however, he is not credited onscreen. Collin Walcott, who composed additional music for the score, appears in the film briefly as one of Shankar's sitar students. The tabla player who appears with Shankar in several concert sequences is the internationally acclaimed maestro Alla Rakha (1919-2000), who was Shankar's chief accompanist in the 1960s and who popularized the art of the tabla. Also appearing in the film were classical Indian vocalist Lakshmi Shankar, who was the sister-in-law of Shankar, and tamboura player Kamala Chakravarty.
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1971
Released in United States 1971
