Bikram Choudhury was at the forefront of popularizing yoga in North America and around the world. An Indian immigrant with a Beverly Hills base, Choudhury was a born entertainer, known for dressing in nothing more than a black speedo and a Rolex. His teaching style was tough love sprinkled with salty language and punctuated by spontaneous bursts of singing. His followers hailed him for helping them to gain confidence, lose weight, and overcome physical ailments through his sp... (Full plot summary below)
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Bikram Choudhury was at the forefront of popularizing yoga in North America and around the world. An Indian immigrant with a Beverly Hills base, Choudhury was a born entertainer, known for dressing in nothing more than a black speedo and a Rolex. His teaching style was tough love sprinkled with salty language and punctuated by spontaneous bursts of singing. His followers hailed him for helping them to gain confidence, lose weight, and overcome physical ailments through his specialty of hot yoga. He built a franchise empire with hundreds of Bikram studios around the world. Filmmaker Eva Orner traces Choudhury from his rise in the 1970s to his disgrace in accusations of rape and sexual harassment in more recent years. She taps a vast trove of archival footage that demonstrates Choudhury's charm and offers clues to his dark side. She conducts extensive interviews with his one-time acolytes who now feel betrayed, including yoga devotee Sarah Baughn who brought serious charges against him years before the reckoning of the #MeToo movement, and Choudhury's long-time lawyer Micki Jafa-Bodden. Over the years, Choudhury's story has received steady press coverage, but there is a fresh power in this telling, with key figures going on camera to describe their complicated journey. The film raises larger questions about the nature of leaders and followers and the corruption of messianic figures. To this day, Choudhury has evaded prosecution and continues to attract yoga students from all over the world, bringing added tension to this rigorous investigation.
Leave your thoughts about Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator.
| IndieWireEric KohnAs a cinematic achievement, “Bikram” is fairly tame; as a mass-media call to action, it’s an essential movie of the moment. |
| VarietyAmy NicholsonBikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator is more than an indictment of a man. Orner cross-examines the community that protected a bully for four decades, ever since Bikram pranced before TV cameras flexing his pecs for a cheering audience. |
| The Hollywood ReporterBeandrea JulyOrner succeeds at evoking a deep sense of empathy for the survivors of Choudhury’s abuse, and although that’s not the same thing as justice, perhaps it’s a place to start. |
| The New York TimesBilal QureshiThis haunting documentary is a powerful addition to a growing body of post #MeToo films — including “Finding Neverland” and “Surviving R. Kelly” — that show how cultural power is accumulated and weaponized. |
| Movie NationRoger MooreLike the other famous current example of the mercurial, dimwitted bullying, sexually abusive misogynist/narcissist, we know the True Believers’ epiphany won’t be something they welcome. |
| RogerEbert.comNick AllenDirector Eva Orner makes her story both about the predator and the victims, and delivers an appropriately cut-and-dry case that Bikram more than deserves that third title. But she connects these sensibilities with an approach that too often feels like an info dump, instead of a gripping mediation on the larger themes and harrowing stories that inspired it. |
| User ReviewTrailesqueThis documentary focuses on the larger than life and very troubling character of Bikram. His yoga style is known to any semi-serious yoga practitioner, and his success as a teacher was unequalled. But, as it shows here, his ego was of even larger proportions than his talent. |
| User ReviewJLuis_001The guy who near the end admits that he knows about 6 women who were abused but cries out of sadness and anger that they made it public which affected the **** Bikram, makes it clear why men like this exist and get away with the things they do. The charlatans are one thing but their enablers.... Jesus. I'll say the doc isn't telling something new but it was interesting enough. |
| User ReviewEvanSI was turned off immediately by Netflix wallpaper and ads that show practitioners bowing down to Bikram Choudhury. Those who dig the practice for its health benefits pay not a second of attention to Bikram, yet Netflix would have you buy into it being a cult. Spoiler Alert: it’s not a cult. In the last 11 years, Bikram has been largely dismissed and I find it highly offensive that Netflix insinuates its (mostly) women practitioners has fallen into Choudhury’s influence. It’s a highly sexist conceit and click-bait. I attend all women-owned studios where Choudhury has been long stripped from the signage, yet the power of 26 and 2 continues to take flight. |
