Review of Kumaré (2012) by Handjive — 05 Jul 2012
If I had been a victim caught up in the true crime recorded in this film, I would sue. After a screening in Boulder Colorado, the first thing the filmmaker told the audience was "I have many good lawyers".
The dude is just plain scummy. The basis of the story is the filmmaker perpetrating a real-life fraud on a handful of nice, gullible people. He knew before he started there would be no movie unless he was able to make someone look stupid.
Of course he succeeds, or there would be no movie to edit, publicize, and distribute. So we get to see him spiritually rape whoever is foolish enough to trust him and his sexy smiling henchmen. And every ticket sale makes him richer for having done so.
When Sascha Baron Cohen did similar stunts (e.g., Borat) his targets were a variety of bigots, and the "humor" in those films was driven by bigots being shown to be bigots, and humiliated along the way.
Cohen's movies are palatable in large part because the victims themselves are dangerous to begin with. None of the victims in Kumare are bigots--they are mostly ordinary simple souls who have an appetite for harmless New Age spirituality.
That is not a good enough reason to mock them. It was disgusting to watch this man toy with people's hearts and minds just to get a few cheap laughs. Just watch the yoga instructor when she learns the truth about Kumare--she is definitely not laughing and why should she, when she allowed her studio and her students to become his victims.
No doubt the counter argument is that this is a cautionary tale about trusting false gurus--ok, fine, but that does not justify creating a new set of victims.
This review of Kumaré (2012) was written by Handjive on 05 Jul 2012.
Kumaré has generally received positive reviews.
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