The Beatles And India is essentially a documentary version of journalist Ajoy Bose’s extensively researched 2018 book Across The Universe: The Beatles In India. The USP of both the book and the film is that they offer an Indian perspective on events and anecdotes that are familiar to Beatlemaniacs around the globe. Bose, who also co-directed the film with cultural researcher Peter Compton, deep dives into the Fab Four’s connections with our country.
Along with well-known experts and biographers of the band, Bose and Compton seem to have interviewed almost every person the Beatles met and every place they visited during their trips here, at least all the ones they could access. We are shown all the spots they spent time at in Delhi, Dehradun and most infamously, Rishikesh where they stayed at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram between February and April 1968 to study transcendental meditation.
The first third of the film could have well been subtitled George Harrison And India, as it traces his interest in classical music – which it is suggested that it originated when he was in the womb – and his friendship with sitar player Ravi Shankar. After all, it was Harrison who had the most sincere and enduring relationship with Indian spirituality and culture.
However, the bulk of the running time is dedicated to the group’s stint at the ashram, and it’s here that firsthand accounts from the likes of Harrison’s wife at the time, Pattie Boyd, and journalist Saeed Naqvi that provide some of the most revealing details.
Naqvi, who talks about how he infiltrated the ashram posing as a devotee, is hilariously candid about what he thought of the yogi’s teachings. We also get to hear from an assortment of owners of shops the band stopped by to check out and learn about Indian instruments, and the veteran pilot who took John Lennon and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for a helicopter ride.
A group photo of The Beatles and their partners with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at his ashram in Rishikesh in 1968. Copyright: Paul Saltzman.
The documentary would have benefited greatly from the inclusion of the Beatles’ songs that were influenced and inspired by India, many of which we are told about in the film. But the licensing costs would have probably outstripped the film’s budget. This is perhaps why though we learn much about Harrison and Boyd’s tour of India in September 1966, the former’s recording sessions for the Wonderwall Music soundtrack in Mumbai in January 1968 are mentioned ever so briefly.
The absence of the group’s music, it turns out, is something The Beatles And India shares in common with another documentary on the same subject. Canadian producer-director Paul Saltzman, who lived in the ashram at the same time as the Beatles and has also published a book of the photographs he took of them while there, released the similarly titled Meeting The Beatles In India in 2020.
According to musician and “hippie trail historian” Richard Gregory, who appears in Bose’s and Compton’s film, Saltzman was originally involved with their project but possibly fell out with the makers.
Going by the reviews of Saltzman’s film, available on pay per view, it focuses on his own memories and experiences. The Beatles And India, on the other hand, gives us an insight into the impact that the band had on Indians, both those who were around to see and read about it all and contemporary artistes who have gone on to fall in love with their songs.
While the Beatles were escaping the consumerism of the West, teens and young adults here were enthralled by the sense of freedom they and their music represented. So it’s somewhat surprising and heartening to hear the owner of Delhi’s Lahore Music House talk about how the band made Indian classical music cool, sitars and tablas started selling like “hot cakes”.
The Beatles And India also clears some long-lasting misconceptions with regard to the group’s opinion about Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who they pretty much cancelled after he allegedly slept with a female devotee. The film informs us that they either forgave him or subsequently believed he was wrongly accused. Harrison in fact continued to correspond and meet with him.
If The Beatles And India sets some records straight, then perhaps we should also view Peter Jackson’s recently released documentary TV series The Beatles: Get Back for the complete picture. It’s true that the recording sessions for the albums they made after their India sojourn were fraught with disagreements, but as Jackson’s documentary shows, there remained a sense of camaraderie until the end.
The Beatles And India may not be perfect but as an Indian take on a pivotal point in the career of the biggest band of all time, it’s a noteworthy addition to the always-growing list of chronicles of their lives.
Amit Gurbaxani is a freelance music journalist.
