Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator

While an interesting enough watch, this doco didn't really cover anything more than what was already covered in the ESPN podcast series BIKRAM.

My Rating : 7/10

The documentary is well-made and I thought the pacing and editing was engaging - a must-watch for anyone into Yoga, wellness industry culture and lover of documentaries in general.

The guy is honestly a nutcase and an absolute liar and charlatan who abused his power and position. Why would anyone listen to this kind of maniac?!

So strange!!

Wonderful documentary about Bikram showing his diabolic character and the dark side of him. I still wonder how people treat him like a 'father' figure and supremo. Its kind of brainwashing taken to a whole new level. Credits to the narration and interviews from various people from US and India. Hope, the person will be behind bars one day.

While this isn't the most accomplished documentary, it sure is satisfying to see the repulsive fraud Bikram Chaudhury exposed to a wider audience. It disgusts me that this man has got away with his behaviour as long as he has, and its painful to watch these gullible morons continue to throw money at him even after these incredibly worrying allegations. The final shots in this film make you lose faith in humanity, or at least, middle-class westerners.

As others have pointed out, the documentary pretty much declares him guilty from the offset and doesn't take any other angle into account. This is a very one-sided take on the issue and morally it's probably not the right way to go about it, however damning the evidence appears to be.

But even aside from the sexual abuse allegations, this man is a true charlatan. His franchised yoga is a joke and his swollen ego has been massaged for way too long. Watching even a few minutes footage of him around other people is enough to see that he is a delusional narcissist and sociopath. Hopefully this documentary will encourage people to exercise a little more caution when it comes to handing over their money and social identities to phoney gurus with God-complexes.

The fact that anyone still attends this gross predator's yoga workshops is beyond me. Before even hearing the accusations against him, I found Bikram's demeanor and presence to be awkward and unsettling. With the accusations though...? I was interested enough in this documentary to see it through to the end, but I would have liked to have better understood why so many people were captivated by Bikram as a yoga instructor. No one could really explain that. Not someone I'd want to take a single yoga class with let alone be isolated with at teacher training. If you're interested in cults, this documentary will interest you, because essentially he's a cult leader.