Just 30 million pilgrims in search of a guru and a dip Director Michael Yorke witnessed India's greatest religious festival in 1989. Now, with producer Denis Whyte, he aims to capture the Kumbh Mela's mystic, fantastic chaos

From: The Independent - London | Date: January 7, 2001| Author: Michael Yorke | Copyright information

The Kumbh Mela is a religious festival that takes place in India every 12 years. It represents the whole of India concentrated into a single event over a few days, and so is the most magnificent event to film. With 30 million people predicted to attend, condensing this to a single programme would be impossible, which is why we decided to produce a string of eight- minute programmes, each following two or three individual stories. We are going to have a Kumbh on telly.

The origin of th...

Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles from HighBeam Research

Changing Faces.
The Birmingham Post (England) ; These faces reflect the hopes and dreams of millions of Hindus as they celebrate their greatest religious festival - the Kumbh Mela. Some simply daubed with paint while others are ceremonially pierced as devotees and holy men prepared to wash away their sins in the Ganges River yesterday. Young
Holy men share their wisdom.(FEATURES)(COMPASS)
The Christian Science Monitor ; Byline: Susan Llewelyn Leach Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor The holy men of the Middle East - the men in black dresses, as Yvonne Seng refers to them - more often than not present a forbidding, austere, and humorless front to the world. Steeped in tradition, they can appear
'Naked in Ashes' respectful look at India's holy men
Daily Breeze ; TODAYI became aware of yet another niche in the movie business when I attended a screening of "Naked in Ashes," a documentary about India's holy men. I didn't recognize any other critics there, but a number of the guests showed a lot of interest in posters of the movie which, I gathered, they would
MYSTICS' RIVER ; For Hindus, a swim in the Ganges is a sacred act. But as untreated sewage and chemical waste cloud the waters, holy men have threatened mass suicide unless the river is cleaned. By Justin Huggler ++ Pilgrims take the plunge
The Independent - London ; You could see the lights from hundreds of miles away - they had turned the night sky over this usually sleepy, dirt-poor corner of India a bright orange. And as we came over a rise, we saw them spread out, thousands of lights glittering along the river banks. There were spinning wheels of lights
Haunted by holy man; Thieves fear stolen banner has a curse.
The Daily Mail (London, England) ; Byline: GERRY DUFFY THIEVES who stole a banner depicting a holy man have quickly returned it because they fear it is cursed. The 10ft banner shows one of the bearded holy men who are members of a mysterious sect who live in isolation in India. But only days after it was taken from Paisley Museum,