Short Cut to Nirvana

This beautifully crafted documentary looks at the Kumbh Mela, an Indian religious festival held every 12 years for the past two millennia (the most recent attracted an estimated 70 million people—eat your heart out, Billy Graham!). Filmmakers Maurizio Benazzo and Nick Day do a wonderful job of capturing the color, commotion, and cacophony of the Kumbh Mela, which appears to put more emphasis on razzle-dazzle than religion. The festival is overpopulated with swamis, yogis, and gurus who offer opaque words of wisdom designed to help steer the faithful to a more serene life and afterlife. Yet the proceedings often seem more like a circus, with religious dramas featuring hammy actors, special kiosks set up to enable the attendees to stay connected to the Internet, and kitchens preparing heaping gobs of what looks to be some of the least appetizing food ever put on a plate. The film benefits from having Swami Krishnanand—a young, articulate, and photogenic Indian mystic—as its quasi-narrator, as he reveals much about various aspects of the festival (and much of himself in an extended sequence where he strips down to his loincloth and bathes in the Ganges River). Highly recommended. [Note: DVD extras include additional conversations with five spiritual teachers at the Kumbh Mela (36 min.), an interview with the filmmakers (16 min.), a special address by his Holiness the Dalai Lama (9 min.), the nine-minute featurette “Four Years Later” featuring Western pilgrims reflecting on their experience, a four-minute slideshow gallery, and trailers. Bottom line: a fine extras package for a fine documentary.] (P. Hall)