David Lynch Making Documentary About Beatles Guru

11/19/09 4:51pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

Film director David Lynch (Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive) is set to make a documentary about Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the controversial guru who oversaw The Beatles' trip to India in 1968.

Lynch told New York magazine he plans to go to India to shoot the film, and will begin work in December. The documentary doesn't have a title yet, but Lynch has said it won't have a narrative and it also won't be "a talking heads kind of thing."

"It won't be a so-called David Lynch film, really; it will be about Maharishi and the knowledge he brought out," Lynch said. "It'll hold a lot of abstractions."

The Maharishi, of course, created transcendental meditation in the 1960s. He was The Beatles' "spiritual guide" on their 1968 trip to India, but he fell out of favour with them in the middle of their stay at his camp.

John Lennon and George Harrison left amidst controversy because their electronics specialist, "Magic" Alex Mardas, told them the Maharishi had made "sexual advances" on actress Mia Farrow (Rosemary's Baby, See No Evil), another one of the workshop's participants.

Lennon became particularly disillusioned with the Maharishi, and later wrote "Sexy Sadie" about him.

Lynch founded the David Lynch Foundation, which works to bring transcendental meditation to schools, in 2005. McCartney and Starr support the organization and performed at a fundraiser for the group in April. It was their first time playing live together in seven years.