"SIDDHARTHA" & THE NOBEL PRIZE WINNER "THE GLASS BEAD GAME" BY HERMANN HESSE

 

 

"SIDDHARTHA"  &  THE NOBEL PRIZE WINNER  "THE GLASS BEAD GAME"  BY HERMANN HESSE








Herman Hesse's classic novel "Siddhartha" has delighted, inspired, and influenced generations of readers, writers, and thinkers, in this story of a wealthy Indian Brahmin who casts off a life of privilege to seek spiritual fulfilment. Hesse synthesises disparate philosophies--Eastern religions, Jungian archetypes, Western individualism--into a unique vision of life as expressed through one man's search for true meaning.

 

The filmmaker Conrad Rooks made a film in 1972 based on the Novel "Siddhartha".

 

Hermann Karl Hesse was a German-Swiss poet and novelist.   His interest in Eastern religious, spiritual, and philosophical traditions, combined with his involvement with Jungian analysis, helped to shape his literary work.

 

THE GLASS BEAD GAME:

The final novel of Hermann Hesse, The Glass Bead Game, is a fascinating tale of the complexity of modern life as well as a classic of modern literature. The Novel won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946.

 

Castalia (which means a Country of Chastity) is a European province in which the author Hermann Hesse envisages a 23rd Century set up of a game called The Glass Bead Game.

 

The final story concerns the life of Dasa, a prince wrongfully usurped by his half-brother as heir to a kingdom and disguised as a cowherd to save his life. While working with the herdsmen as a young boy, Dasa encounters a yogi in meditation in the forest. He wishes to experience the same tranquillity as the yogi, but is unable to stay. He later leaves the herdsmen and marries a beautiful young woman, only to be cuckolded by his half-brother (now the Rajah). In a cold fury, he kills his half-brother and finds himself once again in the forest with the old yogi, who, through an experience of an alternate life, guides him on the spiritual path and out of the world of illusion (Maya).

 

Hermann Hesse's The Glass Bead Game (1943) is a philosophical novel set in the 23rd-century utopia of Castalia, a secluded society of intellectuals devoted to a synthesis of human knowledge called the Glass Bead Game.



Castalia is the fictional, futuristic "Pedagogical Province" and secluded intellectual utopia in Hermann Hesse's 1943 novel *The Glass Bead Game*. It serves as a monastic, scholarly order where elite intellectuals dedicate their lives to studying, teaching, and playing the complex Glass Bead Game, which synthesizes music, mathematics, and philosophy.



The setting is a fictional province of central Europe called Castalia, which was reserved by political decision for the life of the mind; technology and economic life are kept to a strict minimum. Castalia is home to an austere order of intellectuals with a twofold mission: to run boarding schools and to cultivate and play the Glass Bead Game, whose exact nature remains elusive and whose devotees occupy a special school in Castalia known as Waldzell. The rules of the game are only alluded to—they are so sophisticated that they are not easy to imagine. Playing the game well requires years of hard study of music, mathematics, and cultural history. The game is essentially an abstract synthesis of all arts and sciences. It proceeds by players making deep connections between seemingly unrelated topics.



The Glass Bead Game is a fascinating tale of the complexity of modern life and a classic of modern literature.

Set in the twenty-third century, The Glass Bead Game is the story of Joseph Knecht, who has been raised in Castalia, the remote place his society has provided for the intellectual elite to grow and flourish. Since childhood, Knecht has been consumed with mastering the Glass Bead Game, which needs a synthesis of aesthetics and philosophy, which he achieves in adulthood, becoming a Magister Ludi (Master of the Game).


SIDDHARTHA - THE MOVIE:

                 
               Shashi Kapoor and Simi Garewal in 1972 film Siddhartha by Conrad Rooks          


 

The story of a young Indian who embarks upon a journey to find the meaning of existence. The movie is based on the classic novel by Hermann Hesse.


The film was certified by the censors as fit 'For Adults Only'. The film's duration is 90 minutes.

The movie was produced and directed by Conrad Rooks.

 

Excellent movie, direction, acting and music.

Siddhartha (1972) (Drama): Directed by Conrad Rooks and starring Shashi Kapoor, this film follows a young Indian Brahmin who leaves his home to seek truth and spiritual enlightenment, traversing paths of asceticism, material wealth, and sensual love before finding inner peace.


`Siddhartha,' beautiful as it is, is a simplification of a simplification, and a spiritual quest isn't something you necessarily understand better through lush visuals, though unquestionably some of Sven Nykvist's watery landscapes with trees are unforgettable, the colour is deep and rich, the music is pleasing, and the principals are awfully good-looking people. Not surprisingly the high point cinematically is the sequence showing erotic encounters between the handsome lapsed sadhu, Siddhartha (Shashi Kapoor), and the lovely courtesan, Kamala, (Simi Garewal, who plays Kamala, is a gorgeous actress whose lovely eyes, long aristocratic nose, and pouty lips remind one of the all-time arch teaser and sexy sophisticate of English films, Joan Greenwood). But Ms Greenwood never got up in the kind of exquisite, gilded see-through gear Simi wears in her scenes with Shashi Kapoor. She's something to look at.



When his buddy Govinda decides earlier to follow the Buddha, Siddhartha leaves Govinda bereft by deciding to go off on his own, lone search, without a guru. It seems that the point is you must pursue your quest on your own. But Siddhartha's splitting with Govinda seems somewhat meaningless since at the end of the movie, Siddhartha has joined up with the peaceful boatman he met years earlier toward the end of his sadhu period, and he winds up spouting the boatman's words of wisdom: live in the present, stop seeking, don't worry, be happy, and watch the river. 

 

The Buddha apparently hasn't helped Govinda all that much either, since he meets Siddhartha again and also needs to be taught the boatman's simple doctrines. One can't help thinking they'd both have done better living with Buddha, who, after all, founded one of the world's great religions.



PLOT:

The film tells the story of the young Siddhartha (played by Shashi Kapoor), born in a rich family, and his search for a meaningful way of life. This search takes him through periods of harsh asceticism, sensual pleasures, material wealth, then self-revulsion and eventually to the oneness and harmony with himself that he has been seeking. Siddhartha learns that the secret of life cannot be passed on from one person to another, but must be achieved through inner experience.



SYNOPSIS:

Siddhartha, a Brahmin's son, and his friend depart from his father's house in search of a spiritual life rather than the sedate environment of the home. His father (Amrik Singh) says that if he finds the truth, then return and tell him. And if he should find nothing to return anyway, as the river, everything returns.

 

His path through the story, which takes place in no certain time or place, parallels the Buddha's search, but is not a fictionalized version. His friend finally chooses another path, leaving Siddhartha to find his way alone. Siddhartha decides that enlightenment comes from within and cannot be taught. The Buddha admonishes Siddhartha not to be too clever.

His search takes him through several lives as he learns of love and money, and a few more experiences. He almost seems like a snot as he explains to a courtesan that he does not love. Recognizing that he has wasted his time searching, he comes to some interesting conclusions.



The 1972 film by Conrad Rooks captures more of the original book than he intended. The film was not intended to be more than an adaptation of the book, as the director figured that his 25 years in India gave him better insight than Hermann Hesse's book, which the movie was based on.

User Review:


What a movie!! What a hidden gem! Can't thank a friend (VNR) enough for recommending this film. It is the ultimate soul-searching movie. "Stop searching, stop worrying, give love! Live in present. Everything changes, everything returns"! Some deep Indian philosophy in the film, presented by non-Indians. I find that amazing. The music of the film by Hemant Kumar works beautifully. Very simple, melodic, mostly Bengali. Haunting. Gels so well with the river and nature depicted in the film. "O re nadi" is my favourite. The entire film has a feel reminiscent of Satyajit Ray's filmmaking. Brilliant production. Watch this film. It will stay with you for a long time. Maybe a lifetime.


I used to love Hermann Hesse and this book in my teens. A film adaptation can take on its own meaning separate from the novel, so even if the book feels “of its time” for you now, the film might still connect on a different level—visually, emotionally, nostalgically.

 

Hesse's characters are mostly soul-searchers wandering about rather than artificial surroundings, which is true in the case of this timeless, ancient India. As he is prone to put all the meaning into lengthy, philosophical dialogues, this makes him utterly difficult to turn into a film.


This film manages to capture both the artificiality of the setting and the philosophical sincerity, plus that certain naive sense of beauty that makes Hesse so appealing and disgusting at once. A good deal of the film's success is due to Sven Nykvist's marvelous camera work, mostly with natural light. (The few scenes with set lighting are awful.) The beauty of the landscapes is not only the superficial one of a postcard, but the philosophical one that tells you that a beautiful world is essentially a good, complete, happy world: a world in which you can afford to completely focus on your personal search for meaning and spirituality.



TRIVIA:

Simi Garewal took the boldest step in her career by going topless for a scene in this film. It was the first topless scene in the history of Bollywood and created a massive uproar. When the scene was featured on the cover of two English magazines, it created more controversy and ended up in court. The film eventually got banned in India. When asked about it years later, Garewal, who said she was never shy, revealed that she would have stripped totally naked if they had let her. In fact, she had been totally nude in front of the filming crew for Mera Naam Joker the same year, but they only showed her from the back onscreen. She said she loved the freedom of losing her inhibitions and her clothes.

Zaheera auditioned for the film but later backed out due to the nudity required.



Siddhartha is a 1972 Indo-American drama mystery film based on the 1922 novel of the same name by Hermann Hesse, directed by Conrad Rooks. It was shot on location in Northern India and features work by noted cinematographer Sven Nykvist. The locations used for the film were the holy city of Rishikesh and the private estates and palaces of the Maharajah of Bharatpur.

      

Simi Garewal and Shashi Kapoor, in Herman Hesse's novel adaptation, the movie "Siddhartha".




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