For the better part of a decade now, Dharma Productions filmmaker, Shakun Batra, has been the most exciting auteur in masala cinema. In his directorial debut, Ekk Main Aurr Ekk Tu (my personal favorite Hindi film of the 2010’s), he paradoxically but deftly marries Woody Allen-esque elements with masala tropes. In his more audacious sophomore effort, Kapoor & Sons, he became the first Bollywood filmmaker to have a gay main character in a big-budget film. And he had a Pakistani actor do it. And the film went on to make a lot of money at the box office and garner great reviews.
Shakun Batra is brilliant.
So what then could have possessed him to make this piece of shit?
Netflix’s Searching for Sheela is a glitzy, hollow affair that follows mass murderer du jour, Ma Anand Sheela’s return to India after 35 years. For those who are blissfully unaware, Ma Anand Sheela was the right hand woman of spiritual guru/cult leader terrorist, Osho in the 70s to 80s. During that time, she was convicted of poisoning 750 American civilians, which to date is the largest incident of bioterrorism in this history of the United States, as well as commit other horrible atrocities.
She was sentenced to 20 years in prison but got out after a mere two years citing good behavior. This is most likely due to America’s warped “model minority” belief which Sheela, being Asian, fits into. Black Americans are incarcerated for decades on end for far lesser crimes such as possession of marijuana, but I digress. That’s a discussion for another day.
The film starts with her rehabilitation as a caretaker in an idyllic Swiss retirement home before we are quickly whisked away to India where Ma Anand Sheela awaits her first interview conducted by none other than Her Ubiquitousness, Karan Johar. The first shot we see of Karan is in his usual habitat – a photo shoot where he is dressed to the nines while making love to the camera with his signature, Instagram pouty look.
Where is a barf bag when you need one?
He then name drops Koffee with Karan to his new bestie, Sheela (seriously, a plastic bag will do) prior to his Koffee with Karan-styled interview with her. Meanwhile, Shakun, realizing that a shitstorm is heading his way on account of him seemingly sympathizing with a criminal mastermind, attempts to dull our anger by showing us a portion of the negative feedback the interview generated.
And therein lies the main problem with Searching for Sheela – it deflects. Constantly. Rather than probe which its inapt title suggests, it barely scratches the surface or denies the surface exists altogether. When asked in Q & A sessions about her past highly disturbing criminal activity, Sheela instinctively and persistently deflects by uttering bogus platitudes like “everyone wants to focus on the sins of others so that they don’t look at their own.”
The woman clearly exhibits classic symptoms of Narcissistic Personality Disorder – she’s charming to a fault, lies like a pathological liar, knows how to command a crowd and most importantly, she feels no remorse for her past highly disturbing criminal past. And to see Delhite trophy wives, Karan Johar and other ladies who lunch fawning over this maniac is frankly, just as disturbing.
“You’ve got guts!”, one repulsive Delhite socialite says to her while raising a glass of champagne (alright lady, go suck a lemon).
At one point during the film’s anticlimactic climax, Sheela plainly admits that she feels no remorse over poisoning, and potentially killing, over 750 people because she thinks what she did wasn’t wrong.
There is absolutely nothing to search for in a person who has no conscience; Shakun knows that but schleps around for two hours anyway.
The film redeems itself only once for me. There is a seven second scene in which we see the residents of Sheela’s Swiss retirement home singing my friend, Nitai Gvirtz’s father’s beautiful, witstful song, Hallelujah, which won the Eurovision song contest in 1979. Its placement in the film is as fucking weird as the film itself. However, seeing as how painfully bad the film is, I relished hearing it.
Misgendering anyone at any time is childish, disrespectful and simply unacceptable in any kind of discourse. Karan Johar has indirectly accepted he is gay, but he has not said he is a trans woman.