Hare Krishna Mantra Hits Hollywood

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Hare Krishna Mantra Hits Hollywood

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Internet: Kumara das

23 April 2004 12:27

J.Edgerton

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Interesting stuff....

 

Hare Krishna Mantra Hits Hollywood by Bhakta Jim Seymour

 

Posted April 17, 2004

 

On Thursday March 11th and Friday March 12th in Oakland CA, about 40 Krishna

devotees from the Bay Area were invited to take part in a new feature film

starring Richard Gere, Juliette Binoche, Max Minghella and Kate Bosworth.

The group of devotees were featured in a scene involving a rousing kirtan

held at a Krishna Temple, with a few select devotees also being used in

other scenes for the movie.

 

The production will be in theatres by next winter.

 

Story Background:

 

The film, entitled "Bee Season", is based on the popular novel of the same

name, written by Myla Goldberg. In the story, Richard Gere plays the father

Saul, who absorbs himself in the study of Jewish Mysticism. His daughter

Eliza (played by young newcomer Flora Cross), becomes a national spelling

bee champion. This event starts to dramatically alter the family's

comfortable existence. Saul soon begins to lavish time and affection on the

blossoming Eliza, leaving his son Aaron desperately searching to find a

replacement for the connections to his father and his Jewish faith.

 

First-time actor Max Minghella, son of "Cold Mountain" director Anthony

Minghella, plays the part of Aaron. Now Aaron embarks on a type of spiritual

vision quest, which leads him to meet Kate Bosworth's character Chali, who

is a Hare Krishna devotee in the film.

 

He becomes curious about her chanting the Hare Krishna Mantra on japa beads,

and begins to ask her questions about the philosophy. I overheard Kate

rehearsing some of her dialogue off- set, and I heard, "There are many names

of God. We call Him Krishna". She later takes Aaron to the temple, where

they join the devotees for an ecstatic kirtan!

 

How it all came about:

 

The film crew initially contacted Grantharaja dasa from the Bhaktivedanta

Institute at the Berkeley Krishna Temple. He in turn put them in touch

with Gadadhara dasa, a recent graduate of San Francisco State's Cinema

department. Gadadhara dasa then busily set out to coordinate an incredible

mountain of legal and logistical details!

 

Everything from casting to costume design to choreography was amazingly

pulled together by this hard-working devotee. He even drove all the way

to up to Redwood Valley in Mendocino County to bring a beautiful Murti of

Srila Prabhupada down to the film set. On Thursday before the film shoot, he

and I prepared an enormous amount of prasadam to be distributed to the film

crew the next day. We brought lots of Krishna books to distribute as well.

 

A week or so before the film shoot, Gadadhara dasa even arranged for Max

Minghella, Kate Bosworth and others to meet with Hansadutta dasa, and hear

from him all about Krishna Consciousness. They listened with rapt attention

for over an hour and a half, being mesmerized by his expert preaching.

Later they took Krishna prasadam. It was clear that they were very

profoundly affected by his explanations of the chanting, the philosophy and

the science of self-realization. On the day of the film shoot, I spoke with

Cristina Solletti a legal clearance/Krishna devotee liaison on the crew, who

commented, "Until we all got to meet with Hansadutta, no one had ever been

able to so clearly articulate to us what Krishna Consciousness actually is.

He made it so easy for us to understand the philosophy. It was just

amazing".

 

Devotees on the Set, "Lights, camera. . . action! "

 

The actual filming of the kirtan scene was a fascinating experience for

the devotees, and a very powerful experience for the film crew. Before the

cameras rolled, we were summoned onto the set for a rehearsal kirtan.

 

Locannath dasa from Berkeley did a wonderful job leading our kirtans for the

filming, and as soon as we started chanting the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra, we

noticed a change in the atmosphere on the set, and in the attitudes of the

film crew.

 

After about two or three minutes of kirtan, the dual-directing team of Scott

McGhee and David Seigel (who previously directed "The Deep End") stopped

everyone, looked at each other and commented, "Wow, that's really powerful.

This is going to be a great shoot! "They later commented, "Your spiritual

practice of chanting Hare Krishna is the most beautiful thing we have ever

witnessed. Outside of some very basic choreography that we need from you,

whatever you naturally do, just go for it. We want you to really let go! "

And, that's just what we did. It was completely ecstatic. We actually saw a

lot of the crew members chanting and dancing along with us from behind all

the props and equipment!

 

One really interesting thing that happened for the crew was their

observation of the natural tendency for the men in the kirtan party to

gravitate to the center, and for the women to remain around the outside.

They stopped us a couple of times, and tried to get us to evenly mix and

mingle the men and the women. One devotee commented, "You can't change

nature". I spoke with Kate Bosworth several times on the film set, and she

told me, "Wow, I never realized how fun the chanting and dancing could be.

 

No wonder the devotees are always so happy when I see them out chanting in

the streets! "

 

For those of you who don't recognize Kate's name as an actress, she

played the blonde surfer in the film, "Blue Crush". I later gave Max and

her some japa beads, a book on Kirtan, and then I let her choose which

style and color of bead bag she wanted from an assortment I brought from

Vrindavan India. Upon this, she commented, "Now I want to go to India!

"I encouraged her to definitely go if she finds the time between her

many movie projects.

 

As mentioned earlier, some devotees got to be on the film set for two whole

days, because they were cast in some other scenes for the movie besides the

kirtan scene. Kuvalesaya dasa, who came all the way up from Los Angeles, was

cast in a scene where he meets Richard Gere, who asks him directions to the

temple. Other devotees who were cast in small scenes included Laxshmi devi

dasi, Krishna Priya devi dasi, Abhaya dasa, and bhaktas Chad, Paul and Ian,

who played background pedestrians and car drivers.

 

"Cut. That's a wrap! "

 

At the end of day two's filming, several members of the film crew

unanimously commented to the devotees that, "Your presence here and your

chanting scene has not only been the most fun for all of us, but it has been

the most incredible part of the entire movie! "It was truly a wonderful

opportunity for us to be able to meet, talk with and preach to this very

nice film crew. I saw many of them on several occasions reading Srila

Prabhupada's books. They were all very respectful, pious people, and they

clearly appreciated the chance to intimately spend time with so many

devotees.

 

We were all grateful for the chance to spread the Holy Names of Krishna

through the medium of a motion picture. We can only hope that the editors

don't cut out too much of our all-too-brief scenes for this film! In

conclusion, I'd like to mention that it was clear to all of the devotees

that this event was the direct arrangement of Krishna. We agreed that "we

were not the doers" of anything.

 

As Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita, "I am the ability in man". Ki Jaya!

 

Hare Krishna, and All Glories to Srila Prabhupada.

 

Your eternal servant,

 

Bhakta Jim Seymour