Kumaré

Released Jun 20, 2012

1h 24m

Documentary

List

60%

Tomatometer

25 Reviews

82%

Audience Score

1,000+ Ratings

Lapsed Hindu Vikram Gandhi conducts an experiment, in which he poses as a guru and attracts a number of devotees, but unexpectedly finds that his followers are receiving genuine benefits from his deception.

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Michael O'Sullivan

Washington Post

What started as a long, elaborate joke becomes a journey, both for Gandhi's students and for the filmmaker himself.

Rated: 3/4

Sep 7, 2012

Full Review

David Lewis

San Francisco Chronicle

Your view of the film may hinge on whether you can accept the ethics of his fakery.

Rated: 2/4

Sep 6, 2012

Full Review

Mark Feeney

Boston Globe

There's a Morgan Spurlock narcissism to "Kumar." It could just as well have been called "Super-Spiritualize Me."

Rated: 1/4

Sep 6, 2012

Full Review

Jordan M. Smith

IONCINEMA.com

What Kumaré becomes is an astounding test of art's ability to transcend fiction in order to find momentous truths. The lesson? Become a believer.

Feb 9, 2020

Full Review

Stephen Saito

Moveable Fest

Kumare never has the excruciatingly awkward big laughs of a project like "Borat," but nor does it ever feel as cruel.

Dec 17, 2018

Full Review

Michael Atkinson

In These Times

The more he communes with them and hears their very real troubles and genuine hopes, the more Gandhi's clever faade seems, to him and us, unsustainable.

Apr 13, 2016

Full Review

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Zentaur S

(spoilers) . . . . . Our truth is whatever we and others acknowledge it to be. Kumare was very inspiring to me. he tapped into or at least researched a lot of valid things. at least as far as the movie went nobody asks him for any proof and a lot of people seem to get lasting valuable transformation My takeaway also was that he needed the path he took to feel safe embodying, in his words, his ideal self The fact that 10 out of 14 people stayed is huge and feels pretty aligned. The only outright lie he told was one that I feel isn't extremely consequential which was the place of his birth I'm very curious if he went to back to that way of living after the documentary

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/16/24

Full Review

Audience Member

Probably the best doc ever made

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

10/05/18

Full Review

Audience Member

at times I thought this might be a fake documentary because it gets borderline ridiculous.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

(Spoiler warning: watch the movie first) Many of the critics either didn't watch the whole movie or were so personally offended by what it demonstrates that they can't be objective. Nobody seems to challenge that this was a great documentary - informative, engaging, and new. The only reason they have left to hate it is to say it was unethical to make it to begin with. To that, I ask whether they finished the movie or not? In the last scene, virtually all of the movie's "victims" were delighted by the big reveal that he was a fake all along. Many of them already seemed to know that and they just didn't care. Which shouldn't be a surprise, since he told them he was a fake throughout it, too. Absolutely the best parts though are when he's meeting with other cult gurus and exposing their nonsense to what they assume is a safe audience who will believe anything.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/19/23

Full Review

Audience Member

In Kumare, Vikram Gandhi wants to show the absurdities of Gurus and seeks to illustrate his point by becoming one himself. He goes all the way. The film is clever and sarcastic as hell. Its a filmed experiment with "truth" and "faith" showing the powers of manipulation - Guruism is absurd, Vikram Gandhi get discipels by inventing absurd rituals and bogus "spritual" ideology. Relgious people will probably dislike this film. The basic idea is simple and a little scarry. I recommend it.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/08/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The Spiritual Illusion From Within Is Really A Fascinating Journey To Behold.. I Do Feel For The Participants In This Experiment, But It Is A Real Eye-Opener On How The Belief System Of A Person Can Be Melded & Swayed Any Which Way...Unless You Have A Core Self-Belief That Initially Questions What Is Being Told To You. The Harsh Moral I Would Say Here Is Taking Things Purely On Face Value Alone Will Always Leave You Open To Difficulty Later On. Thinking For Yourself Is A Good Thing.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/21/23

Full Review

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Vikram Gandhi

Director

Vikram Gandhi

Self

Cristian Gil

Executive Producer

Stephen Feder

Executive Producer

Nadia Muna

Executive Producer

Eli Nhaissi

Executive Producer

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Synopsis

Lapsed Hindu Vikram Gandhi conducts an experiment, in which he poses as a guru and attracts a number of devotees, but unexpectedly finds that his followers are receiving genuine benefits from his deception.

Director: Vikram Gandhi
Producer: Cristian Gil, Stephen Feder, Nadia Muna, Eli Nhaissi
Distributor: Kino Lorber
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 20, 2012, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 18, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $129.6K
Runtime: 1h 24m

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