"God has been kind to me. The spiritual journey through music is the only thing I feel has been important in my life", Ravi Shankar humbly declares at the beginning of Mark Kidel's gentle portrait of one of the most influential and brilliant musicians of the 20th century. Born into a Brahmin family in 1920, Shankar moved to a dazzling Paris in the '30s to perform in his older brother's dance company. Nine years later, he became the student of the great master Baba Allaudin Khan, and from his pampered life of five-star hotels and the glitterati, Shankar moved to a coconut-frond bed in Khan's simple compound and severe asceticism. Seven years of the master's strict discipline and tyrannical mentorship laid the foundation for Shankar's incandescent, international career. With sepia-toned stills, archival film footage of concerts, interviews, and surreal scenes of Benares's burning ghats and pretzel-postured fakirs, Kidel weaves a fascinating visual history of Shankar's extraordinary life. Then, of course, there is the sublime music. Although the film's title suggests the cultural bridge that Shankar created by presciently bringing classical Indian music to the West, the transcendence on Shankar's face when he plays evokes a bridge between two other worlds: the human and the divine. For more information and links, click here.

To purchase the music of Ravi Shankar, visit the Link TV Music Store.

To purchase this film, please call H&B Direct at 800-222-6872.

To purchase the "Ravi Shankar - In Portrait" DVD, click here.

To contact the producer:

J. P. Weiner Productions, Inc.
tel: 212-691-4864, fax: 212-691-3439
[email protected] / [email protected]