The White Mogul

A teenage boy runs away from the national service in Germany. In ’Swinging London’ Indian sitar

music seems to be an interesting option in his quest for self-exploration.

Nineteen-year-old German Hans von der Thann starts out from the chaos of the Flower Power in

London and moves on to India to follow an eccentric music master who has mesmerized him with

his music.

“Khan-Sahib – the sitar …”

The Khan-Sahib knew what he meant by ´the sitar´, knew well the exact amount that was still owed

and gave him an irritated look. Orp Bennerji, ashen and sweating, came rushing in.

“The raid! They are down on the first floor! They are here!”

Nizam froze. But the shock lasted only for a moment. He ran into the bedroom and came back

with the suitcase, the jute bags, and the chandelier.

What starts out as a fun trip into an exotic universe soon turns into a forbidding maelstrom of

ecstasy and obsession, of exploitation and abandon, of bliss and despair. In London and Bombay of

the late 60s and early 70s dangerous and wondrous encounters unfold. Scenes of folly, cunning and

deceit are inescapably interwoven – right up to the final act.

Al Gromer Khan takes us through the late sixties of the twentieth century and the withering

flower power in London to Bombay, the India of Indira Gandhi´s state of emergency, where the

exotic, on a human level, very soon doesn´t seem so outlandish. His protagonist, who has his mind

set on reaching the source of his inspiration, meets representatives of various levels of human

endeavours on his adventurous journey – all of them linked by their darker side.