Maya

Relatively good movie, starring the former "Dennis the Menace" star, Jay North. Surprising that North, who was a teenager at the time, had a scene showing his bare backside in a 1960's-era movie. While it isn't unusual to see this in any European movie from any era, it is with a US movie.

There is no online summary, as opposed to a comment, so I offer the following:

Teenager Terry Bowen arrives in India to live with his father, a famous hunter. When he finds out that his father, who has reluctantly accepted his presence, is a supposed coward after a hunting accident, he runs away. He befriends a local boy who is on a pilgrimage with an elephant (Maya) and its white elephant offspring. They go through many travails as Terry's father searches the countryside for him.

Set in the Indian Land........ the story is about the relationship of a father and his son. Jay North (dennis the Mennace fame) arrives in India on a mission. The mission is to meet his father , a retired hunter(played by Clint walker). After an argument the 14 year old son runs away from home. A teenager full of the spirit of adventure, wants to explore the land . He then meets an Indian Hindu bay, about his age. The Hindu boy is the son of a dying saddu(Indian priest). The Saddhu tells his boy to take MAYA ( Mother elephant) and Her sacred white , baby elephant to the scared temple in a far away valley. In India the white elephants are considered Holy and hence , Invaluable. The story weaves a plot where a friendship develops between two young boys.... a friendship that transcends race, religion and all cultural differences. On the other hand the Hunter father sets off to find his son. The saga takes us through an array of human emotions..... love, hate , greed , honesty and loyalty. Since the movie was shot in 1965, it used real animals and no camera effects. In a scene, the elephant picks up the bus and throws it at the villains to save its baby.The shot is remarkable. The tiger fight of Clint walker , at the end of the movie is breath taking considering there were no camera tricks nor animation. The music of the film is amazing. Maya also won the southern Californian family film award in 1966. This is a complete family movie. The values which we still hold true in todays world. A must see!!!

A 14 year old boy traveling from the US to India to meet his dad for the very first time. The story of MAYA deals with the adventure, family drama and animal love. All in one. Cinematography, story, music and direction contribute to this saga of a Christian boy befriending a Hindu boy. Their friendship and companionship make them able to deliver their promise which they had made to a dying Hindu priest.The promise was about taking MAYA- the mother elephant and her white baby elephant to a far way temple. In the face of utmost greed and hardships, the journey of these two adolescents unravels. India looks beautiful.Following the release of the film ,in 1966-67 NBC made a 26 episode serial of MAYA which ran on prime time. There were comic book series of MAYA printed as well.

The best thing about Maya is the exotic location cinematography in India, the film really serves as a great advertisement for tourism to that land. The story here though is kind of weak and at times makes little sense.

Clint Walker is the lead though most of the film concentrates on his son Jay North and Sajid Khan who is trying to get a mother elephant named Maya and her white baby elephant to some pilgrimage location. Sajid Khan was accompanying his dad on that location, the what and why of the pilgrimage is a mystery, but the father dies and Sajid has to carry on.

In the meantime young North has arrived in India where his dad who is a famed animal trapper is suffering a crisis of confidence after a nasty bout with a cheetah. Walker has no time for the kid, he's got a pretty young mistress in the house in the person of Sonia Sahni. She looks as exotic as Jean Simmons did in Black Narcissus.

Jay quarrels with Walker and leaves to go back home and then for no discernible reason jumps the train and takes off into the jungle where he meets up with Sajid and the elephants. The boys have to be real careful as the white elephant unlike in our culture is considered a symbol of good luck. Everybody wants that elephant.

North and Khan have a nice Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn kind of relationship in Maya which carries the film along with the beautiful photography. What is hard to grasp is that North is identified as having grown up in Wyoming. Now granted Wyoming isn't India, but it's pretty woodsy out there with a lot of wild animals. You'd think a kid growing up there would display more sense than Jay does.

The film was a minor success and spawned a short lived television series which became a gay classic. Walker's character was eliminated in that one and the film was about Jay and Sajid searching for North's missing dad with the elephant Maya. When they aged those couple of years as teenagers the relationship was so different. Same kind of dialog and situations, but it came out as gay.

The film is not bad and the story is timeless and a good family film if you can get past some glaring plot weaknesses.