Source: YouTube.
Note: This movie was made in two languages- English and Hindi. The review below is for the Hindi version. I have watched the English version as well and the English version seems to have a different story line. The English version has no songs and melodrama that the Indian version has even though the actors are the same. There is no sermonizing as well. Many of us might find it somewhat real but 'dry', like a documentary !
Summary:
Guide is an old classic from Bollywood inspired from a R.K. Narayan story. However, unlike the other stories from Narayan this is not a humorous look at the Indian life; at least not the way it is brought to screen by Dev Anand and his team. The songs and dances are amazing and the always energetic and youthful Dev Anand is well placed against the serious Waheeda Rehman .
The Guide Finds Love
The story is about a tourist guide (Dev) who speaks with flourish when describing the monuments and keeps his audience entertained. He comes across a anthropologist and his wife (Waheeda) and discovers that the two are unhappy in their marriage. The wife is sad that the husband ignores her and spends most of his time looking for treasures in caves. While the husband philanders with other women, he chastises the wife often because her mother was not from a reputable profession. The guide steps in and in order to help the wife falls in love with her. The guide then exposes her excellence at Indian music and dance. Soon she becomes a famous dancer and the two become rich. That brings in a little arrogance in the guide and he starts wasting money in gambling with friends . On one occasion he signs a document in her name to feed his gambling habit. He is put in jail for two years for fraud. The two are still in love though and close together.
The Making Of A Monk
Then the Guide, after being released from jail, goes far away from his past life to a small village. The simple uneducated villagers gather around him and assume he is a visiting Swami. In desperation, they ask for miracles and turn him into a monk hoping he will cure their sick . The news of this young monk spreads far and wide. People trek for miles in hot Indian sun to meet the monk.[ This includes his mother and his love (Waheeda).]
There is famine in the area and the poor villagers request that the young monk fast for them, hoping that God will showers his blessings in the form of rain. The monk tries to run away from the village because he does not believe that he will be able to carry out that fast without loosing his life.However, taunts from the village priests cause him to return to the village.He starts the long fast. As the days progress, the monk starts hallucinating or maybe the audience does !! The good (self without attachment) and the bad (rational egocentric) spirits emerge from the monk and one goads him towards life and questions his belief in God while the other promises eternal freedom from pain and misery. The good spirit, the real soul says 'neither sword can tear me to pieces nor fire can burn me because I am atman!' (a passage from the Hindu religious text Bhagawad Geeta. The atman is the soul that persists after death so the implication here is that while the physical body can be destroyed nothing can destroy the soul!!). In the end, good wins and the monsoon arrives with thunder. The villagers dance with joy at the miracle. They run to inform their monk / swami but he is gone beyond the domain of man to eternal freedom; they only find his peaceful dead body.
[Swami Vivekananda mentions having similar experiences with simple villagers after becoming a monk, though he was not involved in any romantic relationship.]
Note: This movie was made in two languages- English and Hindi. The review below is for the Hindi version. I have watched the English version as well and the English version seems to have a different story line. The English version has no songs and melodrama that the Indian version has even though the actors are the same. There is no sermonizing as well. Many of us might find it somewhat real but 'dry', like a documentary !
Summary:
Guide is an old classic from Bollywood inspired from a R.K. Narayan story. However, unlike the other stories from Narayan this is not a humorous look at the Indian life; at least not the way it is brought to screen by Dev Anand and his team. The songs and dances are amazing and the always energetic and youthful Dev Anand is well placed against the serious Waheeda Rehman .
The Guide Finds Love
The story is about a tourist guide (Dev) who speaks with flourish when describing the monuments and keeps his audience entertained. He comes across a anthropologist and his wife (Waheeda) and discovers that the two are unhappy in their marriage. The wife is sad that the husband ignores her and spends most of his time looking for treasures in caves. While the husband philanders with other women, he chastises the wife often because her mother was not from a reputable profession. The guide steps in and in order to help the wife falls in love with her. The guide then exposes her excellence at Indian music and dance. Soon she becomes a famous dancer and the two become rich. That brings in a little arrogance in the guide and he starts wasting money in gambling with friends . On one occasion he signs a document in her name to feed his gambling habit. He is put in jail for two years for fraud. The two are still in love though and close together.
The Making Of A Monk
Then the Guide, after being released from jail, goes far away from his past life to a small village. The simple uneducated villagers gather around him and assume he is a visiting Swami. In desperation, they ask for miracles and turn him into a monk hoping he will cure their sick . The news of this young monk spreads far and wide. People trek for miles in hot Indian sun to meet the monk.[ This includes his mother and his love (Waheeda).]
There is famine in the area and the poor villagers request that the young monk fast for them, hoping that God will showers his blessings in the form of rain. The monk tries to run away from the village because he does not believe that he will be able to carry out that fast without loosing his life.However, taunts from the village priests cause him to return to the village.He starts the long fast. As the days progress, the monk starts hallucinating or maybe the audience does !! The good (self without attachment) and the bad (rational egocentric) spirits emerge from the monk and one goads him towards life and questions his belief in God while the other promises eternal freedom from pain and misery. The good spirit, the real soul says 'neither sword can tear me to pieces nor fire can burn me because I am atman!' (a passage from the Hindu religious text Bhagawad Geeta. The atman is the soul that persists after death so the implication here is that while the physical body can be destroyed nothing can destroy the soul!!). In the end, good wins and the monsoon arrives with thunder. The villagers dance with joy at the miracle. They run to inform their monk / swami but he is gone beyond the domain of man to eternal freedom; they only find his peaceful dead body.
[Swami Vivekananda mentions having similar experiences with simple villagers after becoming a monk, though he was not involved in any romantic relationship.]
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