Osho: The Movie

"Osho" = the guy we used to call the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and who ran an infamous cult in Oregon most noteworthy for using the money he fleeced from his Believers to buy a record number of Rolls Royces. Seriously, look it up. 93 of them. Yes, you can read that again: 93. And he had his business act together, alright, as one of the cult's sub-entitites was the Rajneesh Modern Car Collection Trust, whose sole purpose was to deal with the acquisition and rental of Rolls-Royces. Oh - and the other thing that's perennially popular with cult leaders, which is having sex with as many of their followers as possible, sometimes limiting it to women, others not so picky. In other words, you probably don't need to watch this if you're looking for insight into Just Another 20th Century Cult, because it's pretty much like the others. It's about greed of all the usual flavours.

This biography is definitely Osho-friendly, nevertheless quite informative in depicting his life, his ashrams and odyssee through footage and interviews with people who actually had met him. It certainly doesn't shy away from telling the problems with his secretary Sheela, with the Oregon neighbors, US officials and intelligence agencies who were quite tenacious in persecuting him around the world.

What I missed, was a deeper dive into his teachings (although you can hear snippets of his discourses), and there's almost no material from his books (as I've read some of them in the 1990s). Furthermore, it was annoying and unnecessary to use emotional music in some scenes.

Can I recommend this biography? Well, yes, but as a biography only. I think it may be a little thin for people who would like to know more about his body of work (e.g. Living a free sexuality, against organized religion, iintroduction to meditation techniques and energy therapy). You can find them elsewhere, abundantly.