Korla (2015)

Korla is a documentary about a television pioneer, a spiritual seeker, and the godfather of exotica music, organist Korla Pandit. This is also a story that mixes Hollywood in the 1950's with racial reinvention, as it looks at the career of Korla Pandit, who successfully passed as an Indian from New Delhi, when in fact he was the son of an African American minister from Columbia, Missouri. The film covers the arc of Korla's career, from having his own music show on television in the 1950's to years later where he developed a cut following playing tiki bars and lounges. The secret of his true identity, he carried to his grave and was revealed only after his death in 1998.