Ravi Shankar: Between Two Worlds

Directed by Mark Kidel, USA/France, 2001, 89mins
Featuring: Ravi Shankar, Anouska Shankar, Uday Shankar
Print Source: AGAT Films.

The figure of Ravi Shankar is so tied up with the "summer of love", in particular his magical performance at Monterey Pop, that it is easy to forget quite how much he achieved before and afterwards.

Mark Kidel's portrait does a great job of redressing the balance, beginning with Ravi's childhood in Benares, his early brushes with stardom in '40s Hollywood, his years of studying the sitar and subsequent rise to prominence in India, his work with Satyajit Ray on Pather Panchali and his collaborations with Yehudi Menhuin, John Coltrane and countless other musical greats.

It's a fascinating story, made more so by deft use of archive footage and candid interviews with the man himself, now 82, whose boundless passion for music remains infectious. The film joins the present day with Ravi performing alongside his talented daughter Anoushka, and building a Ravi Shankar Foundation which will coninue his work.

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