Way of Beauty - Shakti Timeless

Directed by Partho Sen-Gupta

"Shakti Timeless" tells the story of the Indo-Western music group Shakti. Formed in 1975, the group pioneered a groundbreaking and highly influential musical East-meets-West approach. In the 1970s, the group, whose name means creative intelligence, beauty and power, consisted of legendary British jazz guitarist John McLauglin, North Indian tabla master Zakir Hussain, violinist L. Shankar and percussionist T.H. Vinayakram, the latter two hailing from South India. Together, they created a fluid and organic sound that managed to successfully combine seemingly incompatible traditions. After a number of very successful live concerts and albums they disbanded. The group was reformed in 1997 under the name Remember Shakti with new talents from India, such as V. Selvaganesh, who replaced his father Vinayakram on percussion, and the young prodigy U. Shrinivas, who replaced L. Shankar. In 2000, the young Indian classical singer Shankar Mahadevan joined as the first vocal element in the group.