The Guru
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
James Ivory
Michael York
Rita Tushingham
Utpal Dutt
Aparna Sen
Madhur Jaffrey
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Tom Pickle, a popular British pop singer, comes to India to study the sitar with the famous musician Ustad Zafar Khan. Also drawn to the Ustad is Jenny, a young English hippie who is on a quest for spiritual fulfillment. Because of Tom's clamoring teenage fans and his seeming lack of respect for the guru, a series of quarrels spring up between the singer and the Ustad. Meanwhile, Jenny's obvious adoration of the Ustad angers the elder of his two wives, Begum Sahiba. When Tom takes the Ustad and Jenny to a party given in his honor by the leaders of Bombay's society, the guru becomes upset by Tom's lack of dedication and orders him to move into his household along with his other disciples. Through the intervention of Jenny, Tom stifles his annoyance and consents to the guru's wish. Following a visit to the Ustad's music school in Benares, where Tom and Jenny meet the master's second wife, Tom's London manager, Chris, arrives and tries to persuade Tom to return to England and fulfill his commitments. But Tom has succumbed to both Jenny and the tranquil Indian atmosphere. After Tom has further angered the guru by judging a local beauty contest, resulting in a near-riot by his fans, he and Jenny join the Ustad on a visit to a music festival in Bijapur. There the Ustad calls on his own guru and is rebuked for wasting his time with the two foreigners and for ruining himself as a musician. The guru then turns his back on Jenny and Tom and does not go to see Jenny even when she becomes ill. Realizing that they will always be strangers in India, Jenny and Tom effect a reconciliation with the Ustad and return to England to marry.
Director
James Ivory
Cast
Michael York
Rita Tushingham
Utpal Dutt
Aparna Sen
Madhur Jaffrey
Zohra Seghal
Nana Palsikar
Barry Foster
Leela Naidu
Ismail Merchant
Saeed Jaffrey
Usha Katrak
Fred Ohringer
Nargis Cowasji
Marcus Murch
Dorothy Strelsin
Rafi Ameer
Soni Aurora
Nadira
Pincho Kapoor
Shri Agarwal
Prayag Raaj
Crew
Rashid Abbasi
M. B. Ansari
Ranjit Biswas
Don Black
Brian Blamey
Bansi Chandragupta
Didi Contractor
Chris Crane
Prabhat Das
Gordon Deighton
Toni Delaney
Dev
Humphrey Dixon
Shri Ghate
Nath Grover
Shama Habibullah
Riaz Hafizka
James Ivory
James Ivory
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Ustad Imrat Hussein Khan
Ustad Vilayat Khan
Wasi Khan
Narender Kocher
Narender Kocher
Mark London
Malabar
Fatik Mazumdar
Ismail Merchant
Ismail Merchant
Prajanan Mitra
Subrata Mitra
K. L. Naik
Vibhti, Maharajah Of Benares Narayansing
Muriel Neff
Giancarlo Pettini
Prayag Raaj
Don Ranasinghe
Peter Reilly
Mohamed Shafi
Karni, Maharajah Of Bikaner Singhi
Prabhakar Supare
Joanna Tyson
Douglas Webb
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Filmed on location in Bombay, Bikaner, and Benares.
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States Winter February 1969
Released in United States Winter February 1969
