10 February, 2007

The Dreaded Sacred Sacrificial Ring of the Dreaded Kali

Ringo seems to be in a bit of a predicament rocking the sacrificial ring.

A short clip from Help! (1965) featuring the gents from Liverpool:



The band is chased around London by a cult associated with the Hindu Goddess Kali:

Wikipedia:

Kali (Sanskrit: Kālī, Devanāgari: काली) (Pronounced /kɑːliː/) is a goddess with a long and complex history in Hinduism. Although sometimes presented as dark and violent, her earliest incarnation as a figure of annihilation still has some influence, while more complex Tantric beliefs sometimes extend her role so far as to be the Ultimate Reality (Brahman) and Source of Being. Finally, the comparatively recent devotional movement largely conceives of Kali as a straightforwardly benevolent mother-goddess.
Excerpt from the clip-

Lennon, removing a pair of specs from his soup:

"What's this? Glasses?"

Server, with confidence:

"That's right sir. They're glasses sir."

Wikipedia:
The Beatles occasionally smoked a spliff in the car on the way to the studio during the filming of Help!, which often made them forget their lines.[88]

Wikipedia:
The Beatles later said the film was shot in a "haze of marijuana". According to Starr's interviews in The Beatles Anthology, during the Austrian Alps film shooting he and Paul ran off over the hill from the "curling" scene set to smoke a joint.


Hmm. Must've been a 'trip' shooting this, ha ha.

Finally, the imdb entry fails to list a single brown actor in the cast.

Were there any in UK around 1965? Were there any in this film?
Or was this a case of some good ol' brownface and some thick lay-it-on-me accents?

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