Prem Sanyas

People, even aristocrats (yes, we are almost people though more elegant and distinguished), always have had a special interest in discovering different cultures. They delight in being astonished by singular customs, strange habits and alluring scenery. "Prem Sanyas" delivers all this and will enlighten the most curious of the long haired people as it is an exotic film with curious origins ( a German-Indian film production ) . It narrates the story of Buddha ( a kind of Luther for the people of that part of the world ) and his childhood and youth at the palace of his father where the young man is kept secluded in a kind of golden prison, carefully shielded against such sorrows of the world as poverty, illness and all those other terrible things that this German Count knows thanks to some interesting articles read in "The Aristocratic Und Teutonic Encyclopaedia About The World Outside The Schlöss".

The film, in addition to depicting Buddha's life, also functions as a kind of documentary about those exotic habits and customs of Indian tradition. It is a very beautiful film with plenty of dazzling, splendorous images filmed in incredible settings and with superb cinematography, bewitching the audience from the very start of the film. It may be a German film co-production, but the actors are all Indian. There is respect and admiration for this culture so different from the West. The director avoids typical Western manipulation and its tendency to be merely picturesque and that's the most important achievement of this film.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must return back to Deutsch land from India but this time this aristocrat won't travel by elegant carriage but by elephant.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com/

Co-directors Franz Osten and Himansu Rai wanted to recreate the background of Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, onto film and be as realistic as when the 'Enlightened One' walked around in India preaching his teachings. To make their film, October 1925's "Prem Sanyas (The Light of Asia)" believable, they hired scores of non-actors in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. The pair searched for authentic priests and beggars to play themselves in front of the camera.

One scene called for a dieing person in "Prem Sanyas." An assistant director knew of a man who could play the part to perfection. He led Osten to an elderly male who had trouble breathing. The director was horrified by his condition and told his assistant the last thing he needed was for the sick person to die right in front of their eyes while filming. The old man then related something in which the translator said "He is one of the happy people who leaves this world so easily." He would be honored to be in the film. Osten reluctantly agreed, and filmed his scene. Two days, the ailing man died.

The image of a rather plump Buddha sitting and meditating may hold true in his later life, but the Osten/ Rai portrayal of the eventual Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, fills in one of the many biographies handed down through the generations. In this version, he's a sheltered, sensitive prince (director Rai plays him) who, once he's exposed to the poverty and death of the lower-class people, he forsakes his royal life for one of meditation and spiritual discovery. In his journey towards enlightenment, he exchanges his pearl necklaces and comfortable garments for a beggars' torn clothes. He adopts his new life of fasting, meditation and revelations to give him a profound awakening to birth, living and death. These new inspirations spur him to share his deep beliefs to those who are willing to hear.

India's film industry by the mid-1920s was gradually taking hold from its earliest foundations. In 1925 for example, 88 movies produced in the country were released, as opposed to a mere 11 six years earlier. Rai, a lawyer who had dabbled in acting on the London stage, met Niranjan Pal, author of "The Light of Asia" play, who based his story on Edwin Arnold's 1879 verse novel by the same name. Pal knew of German filmmaker/director Osten, specialist in exotic documentaries. The two linked up and not only conceived of the film based on the Pal play, but they established a film company to tap into the burgeoning Indian motion picture market. In 1925 the country had 300 theaters as well as a number of traveling cinemas projecting their films.

"Prem Sanyas" was a huge hit in England and in Germany. But in India, not so much. Its viewers were accustomed to fast-paced, quick edit movies, similar to the old Keystone Studios. "Prem Sanyas" has a more deliberate manner of unfolding Gautama's story, in an almost poetic manner. Because of "Prem Sanyas'" international success, Rai, Osten and Pal eventually founded Bombay Talkies, becoming one of India's leading film studios in the 1930s and 1940s.

This is an easily watched and enjoyed film for its portrait of premodern India. This is the film that kicked off Indian cinema! It claims that its actors actually held non-acting careers but took time off for the film, creating an entirely new industry in India. The cinematography is great, and it seems that several of the actors went on to be directors and producers. We also have a cast of thousands, hired hands from the colonial streets, mystics and fruit sellers. The director claims that no sets or mock-ups were made and no make-up was used, a unique sort of claim for the 1920s; was this the first Dogme 95 film?

On the subject of the life of Buddha, which I'm most qualified to comment on, this film is a little weird, so I subtract just a little from its ranking for that. For a story which is meant to teach Buddhist audiences about the twin vices of wealth and asceticism, the film seems to relish its display of royal splendor a little much, and unfamiliar aspects of the Buddha story are emphasized for the Imperial British audience. But this does seem to demonstrate how different aspects of the Buddha's story interest people of different places and times, and how the Orientalist tastes of the 1920s differ wildly from our own. So, I can't be too harsh on what's actually a very interesting part of the film.

Also, occasionally a great image of Buddhism shines through-- for example, Siddartha looking at her wife, only to be shocked by a vision the poverty implied in her wealth, and a vision of the old age that awaits her in the future. The scene that follows this is chilling and worth watching and excerpting.

I was shocked to see the filmmakers unchain and let loose a real cheetah to kill a deer for a hunting scene-- most of the scenes are not so dangerous as that one, but none of them were monitored by the ASPCA, and the differences are apparent. (Sensitive viewers will find that Buddha is just as aggrieved about this as they are.)