Ayurveda: Art of Being

It's about time we see a movie that stays unbiased towards these old Indian traditions. At times it is clear how most of the 'doctors' are charlatans, even lying about how they don't charge their clients. While they are wearing their gold watches, the 'donation' box is mandatory. Notice that there are only a couple of people who get 'cured' while we see quite a few cases.

Keep in mind while watching that ingesting mercury is not toxic and that the smallest Indian bank note is 5 rupee, while the average salary in India is 1,700 ru/month.

The film is a subtle gem -it invites you to discover nature and human nature with poetic images of ancient healing system known as AYURVEDA.

I was curious when the film was running in cinema halls for more then a year in Spain; Then I could not hold back when I learnt that AYURVEDA completed record-breaking 20 month long continuous run in one cinema hall in Paris and while write this in September 2006 it still continues to play there...

Thus when I had opportunity in Canada I rushed to see AYURVEDA.

The film is very simple road movie, has no narration and shows straight forward encounter with healers/doctors/people across India, Greece & USA.

The music, original score by Cyril Morin, is soothing and relaxing.

The film is an eye-opener to health in general but also makes you think about the health of earth, water, fire, air... and the universe. Its all linked. What you pollute outside manifests inside your body and mind.

Do not miss this film and try and see it in Cinema hall if you can -it has a meditative quality about it.

Congratulation to the team behind AYURVEDA: ART OF BEING. We NEED more movies like that to make a world better place to live and let live.

Being a fan of this unique Indian filmmaker, I could not ignore Ayurveda. I watched it twice in theaters and later at home on DVD. One of the most inspiring and thought provoking work. When the world was hit with recent Tsunami waves this film predicted it. How we are being taken away and further away from nature.

I am struck by its simplicity, we travel, meet people, they talk, they do their things and we watch. No added narration or no attempt to make an 'auteur' work. It is this simplicity and soothing sensation makes us feel good. When I stepped out in the streets of New York, I said wow? what have we become? do not miss it.

It has been awhile since I last watched this film, but I've watched it several times from a standpoint that includes quite a lot of knowledge and direct experience of Ayurveda. Ayus is life and Veda is Knowledge - so Ayurveda is Knowledge or science of life. So called "modern" or "western" medicine is a relative newcomer - having really only been around for the past 150 years or so, while Ayurveda is thousands of years old. Even in the US there is still a LOT of traditional folk medicine, and increasingly Ayurveda is making inroads and being recognized as holistic and preventative and truly a system of health care - as opposed to "modern" medicine's fragmented (just look at the specialties) and disease care approach.

Writer/director, Pan Nalin, did a masterful job of presenting India as the custodian of Ayurveda and covered a lot of ground - both literally and figuratively. Maybe the Indian Errol Morris, Pandya seems to have a good sense of letting the camera roll and his subjects explain what they are doing and why. Like a great shirodhara (warm oil dripped onto one's forehead - very relaxing), Nalin's film is like practical Ayurveda itself - simple, soothing, and economical. The tranquil score evokes another aspect of Vedic knowledge - Ghandharva Veda - the melodies of Nature - maybe the subject of a future Nalin documentary? With "western" medicine - disease care - becoming less affordable everyday, "western" drugs costing so much and having so many harmful side effects, and an epidemic of obesity in the US, this refreshing look at a simpler approach is quietly reassuring and shows us the path to integrating the best of western medicine with the time tested Knowledge of Life - Ayurveda, and hints that the time will come again when the local village doctor - the Vaidya - will be well paid by all the people in the village, but only for keeping them well. In ancient times this was the case. If the people became sick, the Vaidya would not even expect payment - much less ask for it.

Pan Nalin's film is a great introduction to a deep well of knowledge. Help yourself to a refreshing drink of cool, sweet water. - Jimi

I suppose there are an infinite number of coherent structures that pockets of men have invented to explain the world to themselves. All of these will be of deep sophistication. All will be constrained by the hard wiring in the human mind and what we can handle conceptually. Each will be further constrained by locally invented methods of abstraction. When one is viewed from the place of the other, it seems curious inept.

All of these, every one, ties itself to matters of birth, sickness and death, and often with physical features of the body. The amazing thing is that most of them work as functional medicine most of the time. It would be obviously patronizing to judge these here from this writers world. But it is worth noting that the effectiveness of these medical treatments is directly related to how much sense they make to the doctor and patient. And this is helped if there is ancient tradition that can be cited.

One such cosmology is the point of this film, a documentary. The actual matter of the documentary consists of small lectures from a guru about the ineffable wisdom that he possesses and which no one else could without his 50 years training. Ancient references are not to be exposed to the public because of their inability to understand, and yet, with each treatment the explanation bends to be simple, clear, obvious. And after a short while, incredibly tedious.

What's interesting about this is the relationship of the cinematic world to what the film is about. The film is about how the order of the universe, when you have the ability to perceive it, can be used to make individuals right. In essence it is about the practice of understanding cosmic order and the place of entities in that order.

Now, the actual words we hear are insipid to me a great wisdom to someone else, but that hardly matters. What matters is how the film appears. Each shot in another such documentary would be made perhaps with a hand-held camera with the therapy or explanation of the moment a focus. All else would be random: backgrounds, framing, color.

But in this case, every shot is perfection. Really, I really mean this. Every shot has the thing in the foreground that we are supposed to be watching. But every shot also has a composition and background that is so ordered, so composed and balanced, so obviously different than what we would see if we were there watching that it makes the point. The world has order. There are great works of art that make that order obvious. We literally see that at work.

And that practitioners can apply that order to individuals. We see that in a sense as well, because the order of the world Nalin presents contains the treatments we see. It is not the same of course, but we subliminally make the connection. This is wonderful film-making, and a deep understanding of the manufactured cosmos.

There's a curious scene in here. This old guy claims that his power is such that he can eat "raw" mercury and treat himself so that nothing untoward happens. He does apparently eat some. He seems unaware that the camera can catch him palming the poison though.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.