‘The
Eternal Presence’ View
Preview
'The
Eternal Presence' is a film on Sathya Sai Baba (commonly known
as Sai Baba), a spiritual leader in Andhra Pradesh in the South
of India. His following now is estimated to be in excess of 30
million people worldwide. Sai Baba was born in 1926 as Sathya
Narayan Raju in Puttaparthy, one of the poorest districts in India
at the time. When he was 14, he announced that he was Sai Baba
(which means 'Divine Mother and Father'), and gave up his education.
His family did not know what to believe and even took him to an
exorcist who tortured him for several days. However, Sai Baba
was resolute about his calling and in those early days gained
several devotees, mostly through his supernatural powers. Although
he has never solicited funds or advertised, he now has a charitable
trust which runs into several hundred million dollars. He has
created the only totally free state of the art super specialty
hospitals in the world, provided drinking water for over 1,000
villages and set up several educational institutions. He has been
known to cure people of incurable diseases and raise others from
the dead by his mere will or divine power.
Sai
Baba lives in one room in his ashram, wears a simple robe and
eats only enough food to maintain his physical form. Recently,
he has been accused of paedophilia and the BBC aired a documentary
on this subject in 2004. His following has only grown since then.
Many
believe that Sai Baba is an ‘Avatar’ i.e. God in human
form. The objective of the film is to unravel the mystery behind
the man. What is it that makes people flock to Sai Baba? Our film
spreads the ‘news’ about his existence, so that people
can evaluate him for themselves.
The
film is weaved around a pair of narrators who seek to understand
Sai Baba through interviews with recent devotees who have been
drawn to Sai Baba in uncanny ways (mostly dreams and visions)
and through interviews with long time devotees of different religious
faiths who have been with him over the decades.
‘24 Hours’ View
Preview
'24
Hours' is the story of an estranged couple that is obviously
still in love. The reason for their separation forms the backbone
of the narrative. The TV channel that had commissioned this film
had conducted a talent hunt for actors and was using ten short
films to judge the acting skills of the contestants. ’24
Hours’ was judged to be the best among the ten films.
