The man is incredible I have also watched his long trek in the series he produced "In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great" and his voyages to pursue Jason and the Argonauts , as well as the Himalayan myth of Shangri-La and biblical one of the Queen of Sheba I in his "Myths and Heroes" series for the BBC.
This series is a brilliant and unorthodox cinematographic account of India (which also includes what are now Pakistan and Bangladesh) and its entire history from its prehistoric times, through its ancient civilisations, the invasions of the middle ages and the later arrival of the Moguls to the East India Company, superseded after the 1857 uprising by the ninety years of the British Raj and thence the 1947 independence and partition to the present day .
Michael Wood is truly an intrepid traveller in the Victorian mould who seems to be prepared to take all kinds of personal risk in his quest to produce this compelling documentary epic. The term "documentary" is perhaps, misleading as he has succeeded in producing a work of art much different for the usual dull, albeit informative programmes of that genre so often sat through while watching TV on a rainy day. His approach to demonstrate that history is a living phenomenon and not just something that dwells in the past. He emphasises the way that the historic past is ever fresh and present in Modern India. He walks the souks and the bazaars, follows pilgrims, cruises on the Ganges, toils up the steps of numerous mosques, palaces and temples and climbs the remotest and most difficult mountain paths in the Himalayas and struggle along jungle tracks of the Tamil south to make his points.
Culture, religions, traditions, festivals and daily life of the Indian people and its symbiotic relationship with animals of all kinds, tigers, elephants, holy cows and urban or temple simians is well covered here in a carefully crafted mosaic. He's not afraid to discus India's relatively untroubled sexual relations with an attractive high-caste Indian woman clad in a sari who has written a book in English about the Karma Sutra "It's not all about different positions" she says with a smile over a cup of tea in her garden. He also discusses the importance for Hindus of cremation with the low-caste foreman in charge of lighting the funeral pyre from a charcoal fire that has been burning continuously for 3000 years on the banks of the River Ganges (where the ashes are scattered) : "Well you see most people won't touch us. They will avoid us in the street but even if they are the prime minister when a relative of theirs dies they must come only to us, "the untouchables" as no other caste may light the funeral fire".
Mr. Wood also hobnobs with the maharajahs in their palaces. Nevertheless, he seem to greatly enjoy his long journeys across the sub-continent in shabby third-class overcrowded railway carriages whose only form of air conditioning are pane less windows and dangerously open doors. He has really spurred my own interest to plan some future trip to the sub-continent and see first hand some of the images he has so cannily projected through my TV screen.
This series is a brilliant and unorthodox cinematographic account of India (which also includes what are now Pakistan and Bangladesh) and its entire history from its prehistoric times, through its ancient civilisations, the invasions of the middle ages and the later arrival of the Moguls to the East India Company, superseded after the 1857 uprising by the ninety years of the British Raj and thence the 1947 independence and partition to the present day .
Michael Wood is truly an intrepid traveller in the Victorian mould who seems to be prepared to take all kinds of personal risk in his quest to produce this compelling documentary epic. The term "documentary" is perhaps, misleading as he has succeeded in producing a work of art much different for the usual dull, albeit informative programmes of that genre so often sat through while watching TV on a rainy day. His approach to demonstrate that history is a living phenomenon and not just something that dwells in the past. He emphasises the way that the historic past is ever fresh and present in Modern India. He walks the souks and the bazaars, follows pilgrims, cruises on the Ganges, toils up the steps of numerous mosques, palaces and temples and climbs the remotest and most difficult mountain paths in the Himalayas and struggle along jungle tracks of the Tamil south to make his points.
Culture, religions, traditions, festivals and daily life of the Indian people and its symbiotic relationship with animals of all kinds, tigers, elephants, holy cows and urban or temple simians is well covered here in a carefully crafted mosaic. He's not afraid to discus India's relatively untroubled sexual relations with an attractive high-caste Indian woman clad in a sari who has written a book in English about the Karma Sutra "It's not all about different positions" she says with a smile over a cup of tea in her garden. He also discusses the importance for Hindus of cremation with the low-caste foreman in charge of lighting the funeral pyre from a charcoal fire that has been burning continuously for 3000 years on the banks of the River Ganges (where the ashes are scattered) : "Well you see most people won't touch us. They will avoid us in the street but even if they are the prime minister when a relative of theirs dies they must come only to us, "the untouchables" as no other caste may light the funeral fire".
Mr. Wood also hobnobs with the maharajahs in their palaces. Nevertheless, he seem to greatly enjoy his long journeys across the sub-continent in shabby third-class overcrowded railway carriages whose only form of air conditioning are pane less windows and dangerously open doors. He has really spurred my own interest to plan some future trip to the sub-continent and see first hand some of the images he has so cannily projected through my TV screen.