A waste of 90 minutes of my life

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

We are all little drops of water and our destiny is to merge with the ocean, but, meanwhile... we can do a lot of things, we have a material life! That sounds great! Do a lot of sins, uncountable mistakes every day, big ones from time to time, concerning friendship choices, direction choices, work choices, love and sex choices, food choices, marriage choices...Some of us just look further, they are in a higher place, the Himalayas. They are able to look at the planet from its highest point. Sounds like a top accomplishment in physical life, takes a lot of spirit, but doesn't change our fate, neither our nature. As this story tells us, this special situation actually brings us closer to what we really are or are willing to be: defiant life, children in the universe, playing with gods and God, sewing provocations, conflicts and challenges, because as carnal life we become so unstable, unhappy and unquiet.This misfortune of suffering in life - the material life - turns out to be a paradox, because it's also our primary source of pleasure and happiness. It's kind of a disgrace, pretty much describes human adventures around here..., while we quietly start missing a perfect life, the eternal life that only our spirit knows. We tend to live by the instincts of the ego. It's attractive! Ego thinks as if it were the center of the universe. Physical life is all we've got, so let's go and get it, before someone else does! But inside we're evaluating and searching for better answers.On our most primeval basis we live on the instincts of our ego and all we want is to seek the biggest or wildest forms of Earth pleasures, then we get stuck in all conflicts this attitude produces. This circle of secular life we are imprisoned in is called Samsara, by the Buddhist. This life in between while we are learning the ultimate truth of life, evolving from a physical to a spiritually based life. We will always have a body in this planet, or in this dimension, but our mind can learn through the errors of our material desires and experiences. Conflicts cannot be overcome until we make some better choices out of the problems we have. And that'd be the way, the direction of our spiritual life towards Nirvana.In this movie we can see all the rebuilding of a different culture, where landscape, rhythms, preoccupations, all of them are so different from our usual life, but not the essential conflicts, they are all there, reproduced in the ascetic and very frugal eastern life of the Himalaias. A monk, practically a young Lama, Tashi, barely comes back from 3 years, 3 days, 3 months and 3 weeks of complete and almost impossible meditation, locked inside a cavern, and comes back to life with a very weird behavior, some kind of scandal in his community, because he starts to miss the most basic thing of material life: he starts to desire women and to dream of them, and it gets worse when he meets Pema, because then a love story begins.That's a big disappointment for his masters and he is sent back to secular life, for a proof of his true wishes and calls. That brings together the whole chain of conflicts we the ordinary people have. Notice that in this particular prism there are no powerful, rich our famous people, everyone is ordinary because they live by their ambition and greed and expectations. We have to get used to this different rhythm and language of the East, the way the story has to be told, the whole scenery, so we can think about a possible or not possible balance in our life. Everybody has its karma, so it's a different answer to each one of us.In this story we can see also other problems, like male and female basic attitudes and visions, basic relation problems among people, families, couples and lovers. The market competition, the love dispute, the inner doubts, the reactions and answers we usually give or not. A silent battle between ego and spirit that dominates our mind all the time; the choices we must make and the understanding we should learn. But this challenge of existence is given to us also through a female view, the perspective of Yoshadara, the wife of Sidarda, the prince who became the Buddah, and that comes from Pema, the female character.If we cannot find the balance of our life and find our answers we will be back to try again, that's Samsara, if we don't reach Nirvana; a beautiful movie and an a very good idea for discussion. Are we ready to go straight to the "ocean"? Can we reach Nirvana without doing everything we have to do in Samsara? Would life have any meaning if we didn't have our mistakes to learn from them? Should we just embrace our carnal life and bring it to all extremes, forgetting all about essence, spirit and evolution of our souls and hearts?

Wonderful original story, clear metaphors everything made sense. The films metaphors speak clearly, you can tell the director and crew put real love into the film. I really can't say enough about this film to do it justice so at least i'd like to say, great job cast crew and director of this film, I really loved it. I've been to Ladakh 3 times now and have been in the back-country where there are no roads and only little hamlets and small towns, and stayed with the people just like this, it is one of my favorite places on earth. Another bonus is Christy Chung and Neelesha Bovara are both gorgeous and the love making scenes were original and extremely sensual. I put this on my all time favorite list in between The Godfather and Star Wars. Although films rankings on my list may change, the favorites never go away. Anyway Thank you for creating such a wonderful masterpiece.

Pan Nalin's debut takes us on an ambitious ride through many facets of man's life. I do not like to be spoon fed. The films visuals, its art direction, its costumes, its set decoration are really TOO MUCH. TOO PERFECT. They go beyond National Geografic, and end up near an ethnic VOGUE fashion shoot. The 'starring couple' are gorgeously repellent. The female lead is a local (?) answer to 'flavor of the decade' Angelina Jolie. The secondary characters are so expertly cast that you feel manipulated. This is a movie made for Americans. It is a Californian's daydream of exotic proportions. We are transported to something Disney would have loved to concoct, had he allowed sex to creep into his book-of-rules. what the film DOES succeed in, is in giving us a worthy 'finale'. A message which, after such a rally of clichés, comes as a welcome surprise. We hear a WOMAN's view-point! We learn a lesson. "You can and will find your spiritual path amidst people, in nature...just by LIVING." it is not necessary (or healthy) to retire to a temple, as a yogi, or a monk, in order to fulfill your spiritual aspirations. So, it comes as a pity that such a good message should be served up with cynical, glossy manipulation by the director. Bertolucci gave us a typically Italian visual overkill with 'Little Buddha', but Pan Nalin just couldn't resist giving the Indian Tourist Board a brisk business boost. All I felt is..."Oh God! More hordes of tourists will be squirming at home, desiring a slice of all that exotic, stylish Nepalese decor. More authentic plates, mirrors, instruments etc. will be sold off to N.Y. lawyers' wives for good $$$.... and , goodbye to what little is left of this wonderful corner of the planet.!" And Pan Nalin is , no doubt wondering how to pay his Mulholland Drive rent. His next film may give us the answer.

A beautiful set, spectacle landscape only revealing a story of a ugly fact. What is the religion really about? When Pema asked Tashi 'see what I have done? Did you do this for me?' and Tashi answered 'I only did it for myself.' It is very true. He is such a selfish man and the other only are his step stone. Pema and the son became a victim. He just want to explore life and Pema helped him to become another level of his next monk life. Location is always important to such a atmosphere film and this film have utilized it to the most. 6 out of 10 goes to the beautiful piece of land. My only criticism is the beginning of the film. The bird graphic was a bit too harsh. It looks too fake. The film would have wonderful if we forget this quick done work.