AllMovie

Babaji Basant is a healer who lives in a remote Indian village, where people travel from miles away in the hopes that he can cure their ailments. Basant's ability to rid people of sickness is the stuff of local legend; he's said to be 107 years old and in good health, with one admirer saying "Death walks away from him." Death, however, didn't keep its distance from Basant's wife, who passed away years ago. But Basant couldn't bear to be away from the woman he loved, so he buried her in the yard near his home (even though this violates the protocols of Hindu funeral rites) and has already dug his own grave next to her. Basant regularly stands by his wife's grave and chats with her, and sometimes lies in his grave in order to be closer to her. Filmmaker Jiska Rickels presents a portrait of Basant, an eccentric healer and true romantic, in the documentary Babaji, An Indian Love Story, which features extensive interviews with Basant, his friends and his unusual clients. Babaji, An Indian Love Story was an official selection at the 2009 Rotterdam International Film Festival.