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First printed at www.movingpicturesmagazine.com

Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(from the 2011 South by Southwest Film Festival

Directed/Written by: Vikram Gandhi
Starring: Vikram Gandhi, Purva Bedi and Kristen Calgaro

Anglican priest and Cambridge professor of divinity William Ralph Inge said, “Faith begins as an experiment …”

And so does Vikram Gandhi’s documentary, born from the mind of a first-generation American raised in New Jersey with Hindu heroes.

Gandhi is a student of religion, a smoker and an observer of a $5 billion yoga and spirituality industry who travels to India to assess whether he could find a guru he could consider to be authentic or whether the whole movement is a financially exploitative, sometimes sexually exploitative affair. Then he sets out to prove or disprove his own point by recreating himself as a guru with made-up chants and nonsense rituals, channeling the accent of his grandmother.

That Gandhi is taking advantage of people in an active state of acceptance seems easy enough to achieve, as these are people who are mostly paying to listen and hear what others say, who are open to ideas and foreign cultures, a captive community that many are no doubt exploiting every minute of every day without a documentary project to promote. What is interesting, however, is how exposing of other professionals his exercises become, and while much of his practice seems designed to elicit laughs from an eventual audience sitting at a comfortable distance, there is also the discomfort of viewers who could no doubt, in similar settings, imagine bending to those same requests without question.

Ultimately, Gandhi’s exploration encouraged others to find the positive in their own selves. Strangely, although that installment of faith in others is a logical way for Gandhi to distance his followers from his guru self, that very teaching is consistent with most spiritual practices — that their true guru is, and their answers are, within them. Who knows — perhaps the documentary was actually a way for Gandhi to connect with himself and a calling to the side of himself that is a teacher for others.

Will his followers feel a little taken advantage of when they learn the truth of his identity? Perhaps. Was his message a positive one that enabled those with whom he interacted to better themselves or that at least gave them the dedicated time to look for answers and address their issues? Most definitely. Gandhi succeeds in this documentary on every level by defining his character through sincerity rather than exploitation. Thus his experiment becomes not an exposé but an experience for all concerned, including Gandhi himself.

Deserving further kudos, “Kumaré” is shot with considerable clarity by Khalil Hudson and edited by Adam Barton and Nathan Russell as professionally as any recent effort by more established documentary filmmakers.

Having sensed that power to help others transform, Gandhi’s largest question becomes what will he do now — return to his former self? Or remain, in some sense, a teacher?

Photo courtesy South by Southwest