Kumaré

There was some good stuff to take away regarding substance and illusion but other than that Vikram really doesn't prove any mind blowing points. If his goal was to show why we don't need spirituality he failed miserably. If anything he proved that even if a religion is totally unfounded and void of all truth it still helps people. Everyone has their kool-aid.

I feel like there's a little bit of cowardice running through this documentary. I mean obviously it takes a lot of balls to spend however long he did deceiving people to make a point, but the problem is he completely shies away from that point. The point he appears to want to make is that spiritual teachers are unnecessary but all he showed, if anything, is that they don't need literal magic powers to impact people, which is hardly a revelation. It would have benefitted from more conviction.

A somewhat dubious idea for a film to begin with due to the deception required, Kumare suffers mostly from a lack of clarity from the filmmaker about what has actually occurred over the course of the film. He set out to show that these people didn't need a spiritual teacher. He showed the exact opposite, for none of these people would have been where they were at the end without his teaching.

This is a difficult film to rate. In fact, my rating is more a reflection of my judgment of Vikram Gandhi the person and filmmaker (based on what I see and hear in the film) than my judgement of the film itself. I think that Gandhi is entirely sincere in what he does. I like him. However, the film itself is totally insincere, which for me is a major problem because whatever else documentary film is, it ought to begin by being sincere.

At the same time shows that most religions are probably fake, but that it doesn't really matter if they are.

The story is amazing, helps you understand how cults are founded. Only a single follower is enoguh to begin with. As a documentary it is not bad, but the transition of time is not delivered well and the sound mix has huge problems. But it is about the peoples spirituality. And it is decent at delivering how people fall into this.

Quite a disturbing movie, borderline immoral with subjects forced to an involuntary journey, that made it more interesting. You could really see some of the human nature through the cracks and that is really remarkable. In the end the message was correct: We don't need external gurus, and we have to be our own gurus.

Shows subtly that in religion the inner feelings are more important than the exterior teachings.

One of the most entertaining documentaries I've ever seen. Borat-style but less disrespectful and more compassionate. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Entertainment: 5/4. Spirituality: 2/3. Sustainability: 0.5/3.

The concept is interesting - a guy masquerading as a guru - but Vikram is even less interesting than his bland alter ego. He doesn't really get into the psychology of his gambit, and his spiritual/philosophical conclusions are watery to nonexistent. Still, he comes across as a guy trying to figure things out and help people.

Felt like an episode of Louis Theroux or Derren Brown - those would be 45-60 minutes, this doesn't need to be 84 minutes long. Worth a watch but much of it is redundant padding

'Kumaré' is a well-meaning picture and it leaves you with a positive feeling as intended, but that's only until you realize that nothing new has truly been learned. Gandhi's message that no one needs a teacher -- let alone a spiritual one -- is betrayed by the results of his experiment, and works better as confirmation that external teachers truly are needed to help people find happiness.