Hare Krishna!!
Friday,15th of December 2017 was a memorial day for all ISKCON devotees in India, as it marked the release of the Hare Krishna! movie - a documentary on Srila Prabhupada's life - which released simultaneously across 700 screens in 50 different cities of India.
The movie has received a resounding success all over India. However, special mention must be made of Kolkata, the birthplace of Srila Prabhupada. Here the movie had run for a week in all the PVR Cinemas across the city. The movie fever that started on Friday 15th at PVR Mani Square, where the show opened to a houseful, subsequently continued over the next 7 days.
Mention must be made of the special screening held on Monday 18th of December, when the movie was presented on India's second largest screen at Mani Square PVR. "The largest screen, I have ever seen in India" was how the director HG Yadubara Prabhu (Mr. John Griesser) would describe the experience. The evening witnessed a congregation of over a 1000 devotee coming together to watch the marvelous rendition by HG Yadubara Prabhu (John Griesser) and his wife and co-director HG Visakha Mataji (Jean Griesser).
Describing the experience, HG Sankarshan Nitai prabhu of Mayapur said, "It can't get larger than this, Srila Prabhupada's story must be on the silver screen”.
The highlights of the evening would include a short session with Prabhupada disciples on their experiences with Srila Prabhupada followed by the screening of the movie that everyone was fortunate to relish with various luminaries of ISKCON like HH Bhakti Charu Swami, HH Subhag Swami, HH Bhakti Prem Swami, HG Hridaya Chaitanya Prabhu, HG Devakinandan Prabhu, HG Isvara Prabhu, HG Sankarshan Nitai Prabhu with the directors themselves, among other leaders of the society.
To make this event a success, a team from ISKCON Kolkata had worked relentlessly negotiating with PVR Cinemas, establishing ticketing standards, distribution systems, promotions through all conventional and non-conventional channels on social media, managing press and media releases etc. What truly sets apart the efforts of this team was it's coming up with a Facebook profile pic frame that went viral within a few hours of release through the Kolkata Rathyatra Facebook page.
"The movie upholds the history of perhaps the world's most successful religious movement in recent times" said Mr. Bhaskar Deb, a corporate banker, who was awed by how much impact a 70 year old man can make on the course of human society simply through courage and determination. "Screening of such movies is essential as it is the only way to speaks to today's generation" said Mr. Navin Bhargava, film buff and social activist.
The wonderful success of the day stands testimony to the fact that Kolkata has not forgotten its very own ‘Calcutta Boy’, who dared to cross the seas and oceans, fulfilling an age old prophesy that Krishna Consciousness would spread to every village, every town, every city in the World.
In Service to Srila Prabhupada,
Aradhya Bhagavan Das
(Arpan Ganguly)
*Author of "Hidden Treasures of Kolkata".*
Comments