Synopsis:
GURU,
28 minutes, offers never before seen insights into
the life of celebrated 90-year-old ashtanga yoga
guru Sri K. Pattabhi Jois.
Jois, whose students include Madonna, and who is
featured in the next issue of 'Vanity Fair' magazine
is certainly a hip guru...But having devoted himself
selflessly to yoga throughout his life, is he happy
with the accolades of the past few years? What does
he actually think of his 'foreign' students with
their yoga dreams? What do his Western devotees
get out of travelling all the way to India to see
him? Some would go as far as to say he is an enlightened
being…
This film's narrative is structured
around preparations and celebration of Sri Pattabhi
Jois's 90th birthday in India last year, attended
by a cavalcade of international guests. Jois provides
philosophical insights along the way...We meet
his students; Hamish Hendry who runs a yoga school
in London; Rolf Naujokat who has been coming to
Jois since the 70's; and Saskia Maria Vidler who
for the past 3 years has been living in Mysore.
Pattabhi Jois's family themselves reveal how hard
it was to grow up with such a focussed father…
For the uninitiated, this film also offers a unique
opportunity to experience traditional Mysore style
ashtanga practice, as taught in Mysore by Jois
himself and his grandson Sharath Rangaswamy.
GURU is an insightful, humorous
and touching look into the guru/ student relationship...
GURU is filmed entirely
on location in Mysore India, on high definition
DVCAM. It is voiced by popular UK narrator Zam
Baring ('Going to Extremes' Channel 4), and includes
the music of Indian flautist Teymour Housego who
has recorded with Nithin Sawnhey and Michael Jackson.
Director Robert
Wilkins has been
making documentaries for over 10 years covering
subjects as diverse as Al Jazeera London for BBC
4's 'The Desk', forensic science for The Discovery
Channel, 'Mummy Autopsy', and the award winning
'Calling Young Hong Kong' about the 1997 handover
of Hong Kong to China as told from a young person's
perspective. Read
UK press release
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