Wild Wild Country

Oh Netflix, how do you make documentaries so good. This is a 6 part documentary, each an hour long. (I don't know why IMDB says 2 hours, it is not. It is more than 6 hours in total).

Though being an Indian, I had no clue about anything concerned to Rajneesh a.k.a. Osho except a quote or two said by him sent by a friend on Whatsapp, which always pissed me off as I dislike all kinds of god-men. This documentary is not about Osho rather about what happened when he and his team of followers came to a small town, Antelope in Oregon (U.S.A). The stunning amount of video and audio footage used is wonderful. The interviews of people and followers then and their very self, now is what makes the documentary wanted to be watched.

At times I understood the mind of the people who stood against him for reasons concerning their land. Their peace was disturbed by the entry of so many people in red robes. That's scary. But on the other side, I felt the hypocrisy of Americans a tad too much, who welcomed teachings of another brown man from the East 2000 years back and now pray to him daily but had problems with this brown man from the East who was just trying to awaken everyone; this man's followers jumping around happily is not OK but some guy somewhere saying, 'Hallelujah, you are cured' is OK? No one can teach others if they don't teach themselves first. How can you bring calmness and peace in one's life if you yourself don't have it? This documentary sums it up.

You might like him or hate him but you will love this documentary for the stunning number of footage used while making this and the wonderful editing too. Keep an open mind while you watch this and, you should watch this. You will love it.

To understand why utopias do not work this provides a fascinating real life example.

A guru who chooses not to speak and allows his followers to take control - Sheela is a brilliant mix of artful aggression and disingenuousness. Her lack of enlightenment by the end is bizarre. The whole purpose of following Osho was supposedly to gain enlightenment. Will the day ever come when she recognises that her need for power created only chaos?

Human nature in all its frailty plays out on film - everyone should see this - and read Animal Farm, which predicted it all decades ago. Slightly overlong which is the only reason it doesn't get 10 stars - but worth staying with as it truly gets weird halfway through.

What's great about this show is that it never takes sides, instead shows everyone telling their side and letting you figure out who's lying (lots) and who's honest. I wish there'd been a touch more expansion on the pre and post worlds, but I get that the focus was on the Oregon episode, so it's hardly critical. What was most striking here was how bigoted and clueless the people of Antelope were, how racist and NIMBY. And yet, the cult itself was messed up, so both sides have merit! Find your own truth!

Impressively done documentary that even after 5 to 6 hours still leaves too many questions unanswered. Too much focus on the neighbors, too little on actual life within the commune. Respectful interviewing, but not thorough enough. I'm still very fascinated though. How charismatic must people be and how wonderful the commune life that you don't get absolutely disgusted with the extreme greed of your leader and the aggression of his secretary?

The last two years I've been absolutely astonished about the sheer quality of docu-series Netflix has been bringing out. "Making a murderer", "Flint town", "The Keepers", to name a few.

But this one was especially on some level really emotional for me. As I myself was raised in a Indian cult. Not this one, but many aspects are almost identical. I am now 27 and I still struggle on a daily base with many things that were taught to me at such a young age. What struck me was how well portrayed this guy was. The almost hypnotically way he could look, and even walk, got people in some sort of a trance. I myself experienced many times where we saw our "Guru" talk, and he had the same aura that also Baghwan has. The other aspect that struck me was them talking about following, but you could feel they actually were all deeply in love with him. A cult leader is not someone you follow, you fall deeply and madly in love with him. This happened to my mother and even after leaving almost 15 years ago, she still can't stop looking to this new love. She never became a stable person again in her life.

The docu itself should be an example to future docu makers. The pacing is nearly perfect. The interviews are well paced, just a few people on different sides, and somehow you all get some sort of attachment to their side of the story. You strongly get the feeling from episode one that nothing is black and white. And that all of these people strongly believed in their cause. There is no one who had the complete truth or did the complete right thing. And Baghwan is equal mysterious in this documentary than in real life. Somehow they don't try to explain the person Baghwan, because you simply cannot explain him. In that way his followers were absolutely right. He is a one of a kind person, and to others he was a con man. For me? He is something in between.