In the 1960s and 1970s thousands of hippies journeyed East to India in the search of enlightenment, free drugs or a ‘pure’ life. Indian peasants assumed that a severe drought in the West was the reason for their migration. India’s holy men saw it, more accurately, as a search for spirituality. Most moved back to their home countries after a few months or years; some stayed for good. They all shared a profound need for personal freedom, as well as a love of drugs and/or spirituality.

Robert from Holland, a gifted painter, lives with a wife and young children. Meera, a recluse, seeks enlightenment on her own, while Cesare, an Italian expatriate, strives for spiritual liberation through back-breaking yoga. Hanspeter, a man originally from Switzerland, runs a small farm in the Himalayas. Erica and Gillian, South African twins, sew hippie handicrafts by day and party tirelessly at night.

All, in the end, embraced this land of ancient traditions and transcendent pleasures as their own. Hippie Masala is a fascinating chronicle about aging flower children who, after fleeing Western civilization, found a new way of life in India.
 

Hippie Masala Product Information

Grade Level: AP Human Geography, AP World History, College and University
Subjects: Culture Studies, Sociology, Religion
Set: DVD Only
Copyright: © 2006 Fair & Ugly Productions. All rights reserved.
Total Running Time: 93 minutes
Educational Prices: (includes Public Performance Rights)

• College / University: $249.00
  
  

• Libraries / High Schools: $129.00
  
  

• Note: If you are unable to pay via PayPal, please contact info@alivemindeducation.com or call us at 212-398-3112 to order this title.

For public exhibition inquiries please contact us for more details!
 

Video Librarian Review
(Nov/Dec 2008 - Volume 23, Issue 6)

Hippie Masala

Rating: 3 Stars - Recommended

During the 1960s, the Beatles traveled to India in search of spiritual enlightenment, but like most other visitors eventually returned home. Some Westerners, however, chose to remain, Ulrich Grossenbacher’s documentary Hippie Masala focuses on four such individuals. One Italian man has devoted his life to the practice of yoga, and now lives a life of simplicity and prayer that makes him virtually indistinguishable from a native holy man. A Belgian woman also continues a meditative life, though she confesses to having difficulty finding mentors and also faces government fines as a result of living illegally in India for so many years. The other two subjects—one Dutch, the other Swiss—stayed in India not so much for spiritual reasons but because of their antipathy towards the Western lifestyle. Both men married native women, but while the Dutch painter with a young wife and several daughters appear to be generally content, the Swiss farmer is struggling to eke out a living, and both he and his wife complain about not being accepted by locals. Much of the entertainment Hippie Masala consists of charming reminiscences from the quirky quartet (as well as a pair of voluble South African twins who’ve also taken up residence in India), backed by footage of their day-to-day lives. Recommended. Aud; C, P. (F. Swietek)