What a movie like Undefeated by no means
gets around to questioning is whether or not soccer actually should be
pushed onto these kids because the objective-their entry into higher
schooling and future success. Aren’t there, dare I say it, different,
better (more fulfilling and long-lasting) ways of helping troubled
inside-metropolis youths rise up and transcend their dire circumstances?
Undefeated swallows wholesale this notion of success in sports as a
measure of success in life-however, in fact, it has to, lest a more
multifaceted, inquisitive approach threaten to puncture
its progress towards uplift. As a movie concerning the position sports
plays in American society, it ends where one thing like Steve James’s
Hoop Dreams begins.
Kumaré does for organized faith what
Undefeated isn’t quite willing to do with the “faith” of football: prods
it, examines it, and considers numerous perspectives. It doesn’t appear
that means at first though. Suggesting an unholy mixture of Morgan
Spurlock and Sacha Baron Cohen in his method, Vikram Gandhi, the film’s
“star” and director, basically creates a whole new faith using our
growing nationwide obsession with yoga as a springboard; upon
discovering that loads of the yogis he is encountered are principally
fake although they attempt to pass themselves off as genuine, Gandhi-who
himself turned an agnostic after being raised by his dad and mom to
observe Christian teachings-decides to remake himself as a “guru,”
create his personal practices, and spread his “teachings” to an array of
people in Phoenix, Arizona. (He even hires two scorching women to act
as sidekicks.)
I think about that that will sound like a
cruel prank to many, on the face of it. Kumaré initially looks as if it
would go down the condescending Borat route and spew a lot of mockery
below the guise of “edgy” satire; perhaps that was what Gandhi was
anticipating out of his stunt at the start. However then, a funny thing
occurs the longer he retains up this charade: He actually starts to care
about the individuals he’s duping, sufficient that, at the same time as
a pretend guru, he genuinely needs to help them with their troubles.
This leads to some fraught moral territory on Gandhi’s part-and Gandhi
has simply sufficient of a self-deprecating streak in him to allow us to
see the fear he develops as he realizes he has actually grown into his
role, and that he should reveal himself to his fooled followers
eventually.
In comparison with a Sacha Baron Cohen, a
Morgan Spurlock, or even a Michael Moore, Gandhi comes off as a fairly
self-effacing persona, not given over to thuggish bluster to make his
points. He looks like a genuinely curious fellow-curious about the
various perception programs that exist on this world and about the
individuals who buy into them whilst he himself remains skeptical of
organized religion. Much more intriguing, nonetheless, is his
willingness to question his personal strategies when his prank starts to
go approach over his own head. At a sure level, he even comes to the
belief that he has linked more with folks as a pretend guru than he has
as himself. Kumaré thus develops a stunning quantity of suspense over
whether Gandhi will drop the guru act and how his “followers” will react
after they uncover the truth; that is certainly more nuance than a
prankster like Cohen would ever allow.
Alas, for all its good intentions,
Kumaré cannot fairly escape a hovering sense that Gandhi is just keen to
take his self-examination up to now-as if, as soon as discovering that
his stunt had spiraled out of his control, he struggled to try to give
you a justification for the entire enterprise that wouldn’t make himself
look too foolish at the end. Its final conclusion is that everybody has
an “internal guru” in him, separate from any superiors from any
organized faith-a bracing notion (and one that I’m personally inclined
to agree with), however one that’s explored on this movie with equal
parts compassionate thoughtfulness and bullshit self-aggrandizement.
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