Rijndri Load of rubbish!!

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Usamah Harvey The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

bollywoodplusplus What a movie!! What a hidden gem! Can't thank a friend (VNR) enough for recommending this film. Its the ultimate soul-searching movie. "Stop searching, stop worrying, give love! Live in present. Everything changes, everything returns"! Some deep Indian philosophy in the film, presented by non-Indians primarily! I find that amazing. The music of the film by Hemant Kumar works beautifully. Very simple, melodic, mostly Bengali. Haunting. Gels so well with the river, nature depicted in the film. "O re nadi" is my favorite. The entire film has a feel reminiscent of Satyajit Ray's film making. Brilliant production. Watch this film. It will stay with you for long. Maybe a lifetime.

sgraf_x Its been years and years since I read the book in school. Which for me was a big deal cause I never read any of the books they assigned. But for some reason I read this and it was probably the first book I ever read cover to cover that wasn't a comic. I can remember always liking the story and it has stayed with me all these years. I rented this as a DVD recently never knowing that there was even a film adaptation. Im glad I did. For me it was everything I remembered feeling when I read the book. I cant really speak to whether it is a faithful representation of the book at this point but I can tell you that it is absolutely faithful to the spirit of the it.The film is very elegant and the story remains relevant and inspiring. It is beautifully shot and scored. The one problem with the film was the editing. It tends to be choppy and disruptive to the continuity of the story. It also jumps drastically forward in time at several points. If you have read the book than its not really a problem but for someone who has not it may be.Even at 1 hour and 20 minutes the film still feels epic in scope as it explores Siddharthas lifelong journey to find life's meaning and ultimately delivers a timeless message about the nature of the human condition.There is No Gene for the Human Spirit.I Can Think, I Can Wait and I Can Pray.

movinut I saw the movie twice, the first time in Sweden in 1974; I had read Herman Hesse's book before that, and the story had strongly impressed me. The movie was even better then the book! the photography was very poetic, the music (indian flutes, tablas) was very high in the aesthetics band, and the story conformed more or less with the book, but without taking away any of it's impact. there were 12 people in the theatre, and at the end as the credits were scrolling for what seemed at least 20 minutes, no-one moved from their seats as transfixed by what they had just seen. I am sure that all 12 of those people recall to this day the effect that this film created on them. I am not a Buddhist or even very religious, but i personally recommend it as part of a person's education in life....

sprengerguido I used to love Hermann Hesse and this book in my teens. Still, I love this film, even because I consider it to be a very appropriate filming.Hesse's characters are mostly soul-searchers wandering around in rather artificial surroundings - which is true in the case of this timeless, ancient India. As he is prone to put all the meaning into lengthy, philosophical dialogues, this makes him utterly difficult to turn into film.This film manages to capture both: the artificiality of the setting as well as the philosophical sincereness - plus that certain naive sense of beauty that makes Hesse so appealing and disgusting at once. A good deal of the films success is due to Sven Nykvist's marvellous camera work, done mostly with natural light. (The few scenes with set light are awful.) The beauty of the landscapes is not only the superficial one of a postcard, but the philosophical one that tells you that a beautiful world is essentially a good, complete, happy world: a world in which you can afford to completely focus on your personal search for meaning and spirituality. Well, personally I don't believe this, but this movie had me suspending my belief for 90 minutes. What a comforting experience.