Rupam Sarmah's IN SEARCH OF GOD: a kind of religious-style 60-minute gourmet

Among the stranger theatrical releases in recent weeks (years?), IN SEARCH OF GOD -- a 60-minute documentary conceived and directed by Rupam Sarmah, shown below, that has television written all over it (at least via its minimal running time) -- purports to show us the spiritual journey taken its protagonist, Kavita, an American girl of East Indian descent, from the depths of atavistic materialism into the realm of spirituality and god.

That our young lady looks (below) and sounds like the very personification of an East Indian "Valley Girl" adds immeasurably to the unintentional humor of the film. When she arrives in India, she gasps, "It's so beautiful!" in near-perfect Valley Girl intonation. Halfway through the film, after her consciousness has been considerably raised and upon visiting a new location, "It's so beautiful here!" she gasps again. Truthfully, either place sure beats out the scene of her strutting along the streets of Hollywood, as photographed in her more materialistic incarnation, below.

Though you may initially wonder if this whole thing is a joke or maybe a put-on, as the film progresses, it becomes clear that it is not. In Search of God may be a kind of "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" for would-be acolytes of eastern philosophy and religion, but it is serious. Or means to be. As Kavita wends her way around India, she hooks up with a young monk named Ram ("He's a lot cuter than most monks," she explains to us), who guides her from tribal villages to temples, dance and theater concerts to a crazy/holy man who lives, it is said, upon air (below).

In one of Kavita's more cogent moments, she tells us that this fellow's life style seems a bit extreme but that his words make sense. We watch as some cross-dressing monks perform an interesting dance, and later we visit an artist who creates fascinating masks and puppet-like characters (below). Then comes a museum tour in which Ram explains various objects. All along the way, with everything reduced to a kind of eastern-tinged sound bite, the philosophy (which may be true for all I know) still comes across as cheapjack. (The question, What is the purpose of life is actually asked here, and an answer given! Sorry: no spoilers.)

We get a gander at Gandhi (below), and eventually we visit Ram's home town and meet three generations: child, adult and senior. At one point along the way, a dog wanders into the camera frame and, for a moment, we get the kind of reality missing elsewhere. And although the movie and its spiritual seers keep making a point of how bonded all major religions are to each other in their final goal (it's just the pathway that differs), it may still come as some-thing of a shock to viewers later in the movie to hear one fellow tell us, "If you choose the right path , you go to heaven. If you don't, you go to hell." Really? And what religion is that, pray tell?

Finally all of this seems beside the point. The real question concerns Kavita's journey and change. Who is/was this girl? We really never know. And why is her story any better or more interesting than that of so many others who have journeyed to India for enlightenment? Truth be told, it is not. It's just another tale of faith pricked into some kind of consciousness. And faith, as we should know by now, is an awfully personal (maybe even private) thing on which to hang an hour-long movie full of the kind of heavy-duty philosophy and questioning that have plagued mankind of centuries.

The movie, if it works at all, might be best shown (and probably will be) as a training/propaganda film for possible converts. In Search of God, distributed by RJ International, opens this coming Friday, September 23, for a week's run at the IFC Center inNew York City and at Laemmle's Sunset 5 in Los Angeles.