Review of Kumaré (2012) by Matthew S — 31 Mar 2013

By the end, I was cringing for the man and his 14 followers who came to deeply trust him. In the beginning, these people were film props being used by a young and ignorant filmmaker to document (or perhaps poke fun of) American spiritual culture.

He draws a not-so-subtle symbol of a man's genitals on their foreheads while telling them candidly it's "a penis," which is contextually so outlandish that they naturally assume he is saying "happiness" in his thick accent.

Throughout the film, he continues to hide in plain sight, admitting upfront time and again that he is not a teacher. This strange honesty only endears him to his followers, and as the connection between the students and Vikram's alter ego grow, he grows concerned over the potential emotional devastation from his deceit.

At the same time, it is through his deeply intimate experience with these students that Vikram finds a sincere and simple message of healing and growth that offers his conscience some salvation. The brilliance is that the students who truly internalized their teacher's message should not care on a spiritual level when they discover he's actually a filmmaker from New Jersey.

They are given the truest possible test of their understanding. On a personal level however, he certainly is at their mercy. Hopefully they recognize in this film that he grew as a human being just as much as they did, and that he would obviously not wish to do that to someone ever again.

Then again, releasing the film could be considered another act of betrayal.