★★★★
The rise and fall of hot yoga founder Bikram Choudhury as his global empire is born and disturbing revelations come to light
Classification: 15
Two years since the allegations against Harvey Weinstein went public and so began the wave of allegations that sparked the mainstream MeToo movement, supposedly heralding a new age of accountability for powerful men, Eva Orner's film examines one haunting question.
Will there ever be justice?
The stories depicted in this striking documentary about the history of Bikram Choudhury's predatory practices and powerful Yoga empire took place before the surge of exposing and confronting sexual assault and harassment. However, that does not mean its relevance isn't any less damning as Orner crafts the narrative over dismantling Bikram's fraudulent legacy and whether society can hold powerful men responsible for their actions. With news archive footage dating back as far as the 1980s along with the modern talking head interviews providing, Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator is chilling in how it contextualises the history of how his power was consolidated. With Bikram Yoga becoming a sensation, a program of 26 poses in a studio of hot temperature, the documentary revolves around the stories of students who seek to become officially sanctioned teachers in Bikram's school. For them to be able to become financially independent and run their own studio, they need Bikram's permission which gives him an unethical control over his students both male and female.
While Bikram's accusers are female students, both Sarah Baughn and Larissa Anderson recounting in disturbing detail how Bikram's celebrity influence both female and male students to allow his abusive behaviour to occur. Male students interviewed or referenced would refer to Bikram as a father figure to him and find the accusations upsetting and give misogynistic reasonings as to why there are hard to believe or why the women should just move on. The documentary isn't just factual documentation of Bikram's rise and fall but the failures of holding powerful men responsible for their actions. It's not just the stories of sexual assault that makes the man unsettling but the accounts of racist verbal assaults shown in videos of his lessons and clear examples of his hypocrisy and pathological lying. One of the most egregious being that "Bikram Yoga" was just stolen from another Yogi master in India, everything the man has built around himself was created from fraud and those lies are what protects him from scrutiny and accountability.
Seeing Bikram's news interviews, guest spots and having his style of yoga praised by celebrities including Robert Downey Jr. and George Clooney right up to 2015 shows the ominous protection that Bikram was afforded. The film doesn't imply that any of these people knew about his true nature but that because of Bikram's celebrity there were external pressures on his accusers to stay silent because it would harm the brand, profit before justice. In hindsight, it would be easy for someone to damn Bikram and question why the women didn't speak up sooner but Eva Orner builds a supreme level of trust with these women and have them explain the manipulations they suffered. It's all to protect the empire, the Bikram yoga studios that these women were training to teach for and run as a business if they spoke out they would lose it all and be ostracised. Sarah Baughn's story of why she finally decided to speak out being especially chilling and it begins a surge of scrutiny against all of Bikram's activities.
It pays respect to these women and their stories, placing them in damning context of societies failings to hold powerful men accountable and the reluctance to do so. Bikram was famous, had money, made people money and was the face of a program that was extremely popular among affluent and influential people. Threatening that disrupts the status quo and the film doesn't shy away from the sexism these women suffered as a result and shows the importance of showing solidarity to those that speak out. The entire film is about the consequences of truth can have on a system of lies as Orner surgically dismantles every piece of Bikram's character and legacy. He is nothing but a charlatan who has spun a story that has entranced impressionable men and women looking for a purpose and uses them to his sick personal pleasure. Building a myth around him that has Bikram appears as an influential Maverick rather than an abusive deviant, the fact that he can still teach classes today proves how his influence is still effective to people's minds.
To the audience, it is clear what he is, an abusive, lying foolish fraud who is deluded into believing he is untouchable to accountability and the law, that fame and money protect him, sound familiar? Bikram Choudhury's boasts at the beginning of the film are proven lies by the end, everything that he thinks makes him impressive just truly shows how detached from reality he is, case in point Bikram believing he cured Richard Nixon's leg or that he taught Elvis how to dance. However, despite being proved a fraud and found criminally negligent in civil court, Bikram fled America and still operates today, Orner's film is a film about truth and its importance but it doesn't lose sight of the disheartening reality. Despite people speaking out, there is still an unwillingness to hold any of these men accountable at a criminal level, they are allowed into exile and slowly become "rehabilitated" and reintroduced to the world.
Do these women get justice? Despite settlements and civil court victories, Bikram Choudhury has not truly faced the consequences for his actions. Even though "Bikram Yoga" has been rebranded, a pretty new logo to quash fears from liberal customers but the environment that empowered him is still the same. His power has merely geographically changed, interviews at the end of the film still have people praising his influence and people across the globe still seek his methods. Eva Orner's film can educate audiences about the truth behind this man and his practices and how more needs to be done to uproot these horrifying norms and behaviours women are forced to endure to find social and financial success. Complacency is not the way forward and the courage of these women is the example that should be followed rather than this blind fanaticism built from insecurity.
Director: #EvaOrner
Cast: #BikramChoudhury, #SarahBaughn, #MickiJafaBodden, #LarissaAnderson, #JakobSchanzer, #LizWinfield
Release Date:
Available to stream on Netflix
Trailer:
Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews
Images from the Internet Movie Database, Synopsis from Netflix
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