A sizable part of my maternal family has roots in BAPS, and so for most of my high school years, we went to the Edison BAPS mandir, albeit irregularly.  My experiences there were mixed; on the one hand, everyone was extremely welcoming and caring, on the other, I sensed quite a bit of sexism within what was deemed tradition.  Women and men prayed, ate, chatted, and studied in separate sections.  When the modern leader of the international organization, Pramukh Swami Maharaj, came to visit the Edison chapter, my father and brother were given the honor of meeting and shaking hands with him, while my mother and I remained in the back section throughout the Swami’s lecture.  Of course, my limited experience with the organization gives me little authority in speaking about its practices — I do not know enough about their good works; conversely, I am not familiar with all of practices that I would probably label backward.

Therefore, in hearing about showing of Mystic India, I was curious to see whether or not a religious bias would dominate.  Although the cinematography was all that reviewers said it would be (after all, it was an OMNI film, and we are talking about an undoubtedly gorgeous and colorful India), the story and message was less than inspiring.  What was supposed to be a rediscovery of India was a one-sided tale of the founder of the Swaminarayan faith, Neelkanth.  Even the portrayal of India was skewed — the filmmakers chose to ignore all of India’s highly apparent problems and present the country as a land of festivals, diversity, equality, harmony, and meditation.  Moreover, the film did little to explain the origins of India’s culture and traditions, instead accepting them as an inevitable part of a paradise of sorts.  On the website itself, India is called a “nation of silent spirituality.”  From my experience, however, India is anything but silent.  It is one thing to praise these various aspects of India; it is an entirely different thing to focus only on a single faith and the superior features of a culture and label it all of “India.”

What is especially disappointing to me about the film is how the makers chose to take the opportunity to create an unprecedented experience of India for viewers around the world and turn it into an obvious plug for the Swaminarayan faith with a biased perspective of India itself.  There is no doubt that the support for the film by BAPS, an organization with a fair amount of political and economic clout, was essential.  However, it is a shame that what I thought would be an OMNI film on India (a chance that we will probably not have the financial means to repeat anytime soon) turned out to be a misnamed BAPS promotion.  My ambivalence about BAPS was augmented by the last panorama shot, which was of a giant crowd of men holding candles around Pramukh Swami Maharaj while Peter O’Toole discussed the diversity and equality that is India today.  If the makers were intending to create a film about the Swaminarayan faith in India, then they could have done a better job of making that specific goal clear in the blurbs and of portraying a less romanticized and more realistic India.  Instead, the movie swarmed with unmerited generalizations.

On the bright side, it seems as though the film will do a lot for the Indian tourism industry, an undeniable plus for the Indian economy.  A hippie and his wife/girlfriend came up to my friend and me after the film, ooh-ing and ahh-ing about the breathtaking scenes and colors and how it reminded him of his six previous trips to India.  I was surprised that he wasn’t dismayed by the film’s footage that showed a live lion feet away from the main boy actor — without any disclaimers at the end of the movie regarding cruelty to animals.  I tried to explain my general chagrin at the film, but he was insisting on “finding something to pound about.”  We did indeed pound fists.  I’m sure he will be visiting India again soon.

I also must admit that I did spend a good number of minutes in the OMNI theater grooving to some of the music tracks — of course, I am partial because the lead vocals are provided by Shubha Mudgal, one of my favorite Indian artists.  It is available to preview on iTunes, in case you are interested.  I also encourage those of you who have the opportunity to see the film Mystic India for yourself; I would love to hear others’ opinions, given that mine may be rather extreme.

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