The Guru (1969 film)
{{Short description|1969 film by James Ivory}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2015}}
{{Use Indian English|date=October 2015}}
{{more citations needed|date=June 2012}}
{{Infobox film
| name = The Guru
| image = The Guru.jpg
| caption = Theatrical release poster
| director = James Ivory
| producer = Ismail Merchant
| writer = Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
James Ivory
| starring = Rita Tushingham
Michael York
Utpal Dutt
Madhur Jaffrey
Barry Foster
Aparna Sen
Zohra Sehgal
Saeed Jaffrey
| music = Ustad Vilayat Khan
| cinematography = Subrata Mitra
| editing = Prabhakar Supare
Humphrey Dixon (assistant)
| studio = Merchant Ivory Productions
| distributor = 20th Century Fox
| released = {{Film date|1969|02|10|df=yes}}
| runtime = 112 min
| country = United States
India
| language = English
Urdu
| gross =
}}
The Guru is a 1969 film by Merchant Ivory Productions, with a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and James Ivory.
Plot
A rock star, Tom Pickle (Michael York), travels to India to learn to play the sitar with the great musician Ustad Zafar Khan (as George Harrison did when he studied under Ravi Shankar). Khan (Utpal Dutt) is not happy with his disciple but still takes him to Benares to meet his own guru.
Cast
{{Unreferenced section|date=September 2021}}
- Rita Tushingham as Jenny
- Michael York as Tom Pickle
- Utpal Dutt as Ustad Zafar Khan
- Madhur Jaffrey as Begum Sahiba
- Barry Foster as Chris
- Aparna Sen as Ghazala
- Zohra Sehgal as Mastani
- Saeed Jaffrey as Murad
Box office
According to Fox records, the film required $1,675,000 in theatrical rentals to break even. By December 1970, it had only made $625,000 in rentals, causing the studio to take a loss.{{cite book|page=[https://archive.org/details/foxthatgotawayt00silv/page/328 328]|title=The Fox that got away : the last days of the Zanuck dynasty at Twentieth Century-Fox|url=https://archive.org/details/foxthatgotawayt00silv|url-access=registration|last=Silverman|first=Stephen M|year=1988|publisher=L. Stuart|isbn=9780818404856}} This was equivalent to estimated box office gross receipts of approximately {{US$|{{#expr:0.625*(100/29.8) round 0}} million|long=no}}.{{cite book |last1=Vogel |first1=Harold L. |chapter=Table 3.4. Motion picture theater industry statistics, 1965-2009 |title=Entertainment Industry Economics: A Guide for Financial Analysis |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-49732-9 |pages=88–9 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BfyFFCyRvX0C&pg=PA88 |quote=1965 (...) MPAA U.S. + Canadian rentals % of BO (...) 29.8}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb title|id=0064396|title=The Guru}}
- [http://www.merchantivory.com/guru.html Merchant Ivory overview]
{{Merchant Ivory Productions}}
{{James Ivory}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guru, The}}
Category:Films about Indian Americans
Category:English-language Indian films
Category:Merchant Ivory Productions films
Category:Films directed by James Ivory
Category:Films with screenplays by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Category:Films scored by Vilayat Khan
Category:Films with screenplays by James Ivory
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