"The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir" is a spirited romp through magic, karma, free will and serendipity. Peppered with humor and surprises, it's a captivating combination of adventure, romantic comedy and spiritual insights. The music is fantastic, and it features a full Bollywood dance scene. It opened in select theaters on June 21, highly recommended.

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The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir, is a spirited romp through magic, karma, free will and serendipity. Peppered with humor and surprises, it's a captivating combination of adventure, romantic comedy and spiritual insights. The upbeat soundtrack music is by Amit Trivedi, with lyrics by Anvita Dutt and features a jazzy, full Bollywood dance number.

The hypnotically engaging, multitalented, Dhanush stars as Aja. Dhanush is a famous film actor in India, as well as producer, director, writer, lyricist and screenwriter who has won the National Award for Best Actor.

The big-hearted Aja is a fakir, defined by Merriam-Webster as "an itinerant Hindu ascetic or wonder-worker" or alternately as an "impostor or swindler," from the Arabic faqir, literally, "poor man." All meanings apply in this instance. Aja's journey takes him from India to France, Italy, Spain, Libya and right into a hilarious version of Monty Python's England. While this is Dhanush's first international film, his song "Why this Kolaveri Di", became the first Indian music video to get over 100 million views on YouTube.

The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir is based on a best-selling book by French novelist Romain Pue'rtolas, and directed by Ken Scott. It opened on June 21, 2019 in select theaters in the USA, Canada, UK, Singapore, Malaysia and India. (It opened earlier in France.) The film won two international awards: the Ray of Sunshine Award at the Norwegian International Film Festival and Best Comedy at the Barcelona Sant-Jordi International Film Festival.

It's a charming, uplifting escape that even manages to make a statement on the absurdities of immigration laws -- highly recommended.

Synopsis:

After his mother's death, a young fakir from the streets of Mumbai, Ajatashatru or 'Aja ("Dhanush"), leaves India for France to track down the father he never knew. From the moment he arrives in Paris, nothing goes as planned. Aja falls in love with a young American woman ("Erin Moriarty") having an existential crisis, wakes up in a truck full of Somalian Refugees ("Barkhad Abdi") headed for England, is held hostage in abureaucratic war, sorts out the love life of a Movie Star ("Berenice Bejo"), gets shot at by a hitman in a Roman palace, travels by private jet, merchant ship and hot air balloon, and becomes a rich man for the span of a few hours. As Aja finds himself helplessly shipped from Folkestone to Barcelona, and from Rome to Tripoli, what was initially supposed to be a simple visit to Paris to discover his father's identity turns into a veritable odyssey.

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Authors Website: http://www.OceanViewArts.com

Authors Bio:

Meryl Ann Butler is an artist, author, educator and OpedNews Managing Editor who has been actively engaged in utilizing the arts as stepping-stones toward joy-filled wellbeing since she was a hippie. She began writing for OpEdNews in Feb, 2004. She became a Senior Editor in August 2012 and Managing Editor in January, 2013. In June, 2015, the combined views on her articles, diaries and quick link contributions topped one million. She was particularly happy that her article about Bree Newsome removing the Confederate flag was the one that put her past the million mark.

Her art in a wide variety of media can be seen on her YouTube video, "Visionary Artist Meryl Ann Butler on Creativity and Joy" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcGs2r_66QE

A NYC native, her response to 9-11 was to pen an invitation to healing through creativity, entitled, "90-Minute Quilts: 15+ Projects You Can Stitch in an Afternoon" (Krause 2006), which is a bestseller in the craft field. The sequel, MORE 90-Minute Quilts: 20+ Quick and Easy Projects With Triangles and Squares was released in April, 2011. Her popular video, How to Stitch a Quilt in 90 Minutes with Meryl Ann Butler can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrShGOQaJQ8

She has been active in a number of international, arts-related projects as a citizen diplomat, and was arts advisor to Baltimore's CIUSSR (Center for Improving US-Soviet Relations), 1987-89. She made two trips to the former USSR in 1987 and 1988 to speak to artists, craftpeople and fashion designers on the topic of utilizing the arts as a tool for global wellbeing. She created the historical "First US-Soviet Children's Peace Quilt Exchange Project" in 1987-88, which was the first time a reciprocal quilt was given to the US from the former USSR.

Her artwork is in collections across the globe.

Meryl Ann is a founding member of The Labyrinth Society and has been building labyrinths since 1992. She publishes an annual article about the topic on OpEdNews on World Labyrinth Day, the first Saturday in May.

OpEdNews Senior Editor Joan Brunwasser interviewed Meryl Ann in "Beyond Surviving: How to Thrive in Challenging Times" at https://www.opednews.com/articles/Beyond-Surviving--How-to-by-Joan-Brunwasser-Anxiety_Appreciation_Coronavirus_Creativity-200318-988.html

Find out more about Meryl Ann's artistic life in "OEN Managing Ed, Meryl Ann Butler, Featured on the Other Side of the Byline" at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/OEN-Managing-Ed-Meryl-Ann-in-Life_Arts-Artistic_Artists_Quilt-170917-615.html

On Feb 11, 2017, Senior Editor Joan Brunwasser interviewed Meryl Ann in Pink Power: Sister March, Norfolk, VA at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Pink-Power-Sister-March--by-Joan-Brunwasser-Pussy-Hats-170212-681.html

"Creativity and Healing: The Work of Meryl Ann Butler" by Burl Hall is at
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Creativity-and-Healing--T-by-Burl-Hall-130414-18.html

Burl and Merry Hall interviewed Meryl Ann on their BlogTalk radio show, "Envision This," at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/envision-this/2013/04/11/meryl-ann-butler-art-as-a-medicine-for-the-soul

Archived articles www.opednews.com/author/author1820.html
Older archived articles, from before May 2005 are here.