Kumaré is an American 2011 documentary film directed by Vikram Gandhi. To record the documentary, American filmmaker Vikram Gandhi transformed himself into Sri Kumaré, an enlightened guru from a fictional village in India, by adopting a fake Indian accent and growing out his hair and beard. In the film, Kumaré travels to Arizona to spread his made-up philosophy and gain sincere followers. Kumaré premiered at the 2011 South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW), where it received the festival's Feature Film Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature. Gandhi came up with the idea of a fictional guru while recording another documentary film about yogis and their followers. Kumaré received fair reviews upon release. Many movie reviewers criticized Gandhi's deception as immoral, but partially forgave Gandhi for realizing that the experiment had grown out of his control. Many compared the character of Kumaré and the deception by Gandhi to Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat character and film. Those who liked the movie, like Stephen Holden of the New York Times and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, praised the film's message of "finding the guru within."
***SPOILER ALERT***
Kabam! To everyone interested in spirituality, this is a must-watch from 2011, a needed wake-up slap in the face for some viewers.
How easy it is for a long-haired, bearded brown man in a robe to fool white people. I think if you can get a guru to make you feel good, teach you meditation techniques, yoga exercises, etc., that's great. If he charges you a LOT of money, lives a luxury life, and wants to touch your private parts and take you on a spaceship because god told him so, then it's a big no-no.
Basically, Vikram Gandhi makes his Kumaré followers suffer humiliating (and hilarious) experiences on camera to tell you and them that you can be your own guru, great. That ends up being a great spiritual teaching, no? By trying to expose the falseness of gurus in a way that raises a lot of ethical questions, did he become a true one? I think he did.
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