Siddhartha

An Indian Brahmin (a contemporary of the Buddha, whose name he shares) seeks his own path to spiritual fulfillment, getting sidetracked into worldly ways and learning late the importance of the “eternal Now.” Hermann Hesse’s 1951 novel was a campus hottie in the 1960s, serving as a hippie version of The Greatest Story Ever Told and a refuge for readers who couldn’t get into Steppenwolf or Narcissus and Goldmund. Conrad Rooks’ 1972 film with Shashi Kapoor was faithful but flat and uninspired, memorable mainly for Sven Nykvist’s sublime cinematography and the stunning beauty of Simi Garewal as the courtesan Kamala. Now the film is back, in a spiffed-up new print that nicely showcases its virtues while failing to hide its shortcomings. Rooks, not too surprisingly, never made another film.