‘Searching For Sheela’ Review: Dharma Documentary Is A Cold, Pointless Cup Of Koffee With A Charged Criminal
After attending a couple of film festivals, I have this newfound appreciation for documentaries, which sometimes exceeds what that for feature films. I used to naïvely think they were boring, and never realised there was so much you could do with the format. More so, when you’re dealing with a controversial figure like Ma Anand Sheela, the right-hand woman of Bhagwan Rajneesh aka Osho, a charged and reformed criminal, and a pop-culture icon since 2018, post the Wild Wild Country release. You don’t necessarily have to take sides, or get investigative. But surely there are ways to keep things interesting and delicious? The Netflix documentary, Searching For Sheela, fails grandly on that account.
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In fact, the one-hour documentary film, without a director credit but produced by Karan Johar’s Dharmatic Entertainment and executive produced by filmmaker Shakun Batra, feels so frustratingly pointless, that I had to wonder why it was made in the first place. I didn’t have to ponder for long, because if you’ve seen Koffee With Karan, you’ll know exactly how to feel about this one. An exciting presenter, an even more exciting guest, oodles of stylishly curated and fashionable fluff that scratches the surface just enough to make you think something substantial is coming…. You can practically hear Aamir Khan’s Bhuvan from Lagaan saying, “Bas chhu ke daud, Kachra!”
The result is a pointless cup of cold, cold coffee that reduces the otherwise fascinating heroine of Wild Wild Country, Ma Anand Sheela, into the controversial Gujarati NRI aunt who has returned home after decades, all her transgressions forgotten and forgiven. And this… is her trip video.
How, when, where and why are we searching for Sheela?
In an interview around the release of the film’s trailer, EP Shakun Batra clarified that this was not an investigative documentary. So no startling revelations were going to be unearthed by the makers. Okay, message received. But now I wonder if that was just a way of absolving themselves of any responsibility of it turning out saltless and bland.
The keyword here is empathy, and the documentary both begins and ends with a reminder that Sheela Ambalal Patel aka Ma Anand Sheela, the empress who ran Osho’s empire and built an entire city for her people, is now just Sheela Birnstiel, the caregiver. She runs a care home for seniors with afflictions. She dresses like old Indian women who live abroad. And when she begins talking in that slow drawl, it was like I was watching every single old and precocious Gujarati NRI aunty I’ve ever known in my life.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t me mocking her. We Gujjus love self-deprecation. In fact, this was one of the few things about her that was likely to trigger my empathy for her. Likely to. A call confirms that her trip to India after 35 years is confirmed and she has a slew of interviews and speaking events lined up for her. And the first thing they get her to do when she lands in Delhi is…. Come on, guys, guess, it’s a Dharma production! Yaaaas shopping!
And from then we take a trip through Sheela’s starry social calendar—from interviews with Karan Johar and Barkha Dutt, to evenings at the Ramanis’ and Chhattarpur Farms, where the place settings are gold foiled. So lavish, I thought we’d stumbled into The Big Day set by mistake!
Bas, aur kya? She meets these people, talks to them, doesn’t like their questions much because they weren’t asking the right ones (according to her) and then, after a short emotional visit to her childhood home in Gujarat, she flies back. So wild, you guys.
Also Read: 5 Thoughts We Had About Searching For Sheela Trailer: Ma Anand Sheela’s Bid For Redemption Has Been Cast
First rule of Sheela’s Club? Don’t talk about Sheela’s Club.
See here’s where my main frustrations begin. This is a very fascinating woman who has had trysts with a dynamic man and his cult, corruptible power, law enforcement, prison, and a life of scandal and threat. And yet, every time anyone wants to talk to her about that life, she starts talking in circles, and giving you the illusion that she’s answered your question in some splendid revelation of life’s hidden truth.
In reality, she has sidestepped it. I’ve seen enough religious cult leaders, godmen, and even heads of state do this to let it slide. But everyone in that film seems so blown away by her.
The excitement peaks when she is talking about her electric connection with her Bhagwan, and how their love wasn’t tied to carnal pleasure. She was already drowning in his eyes, which she assumed were more beautiful than his penis, not that she’s seen his penis, she clarifies to Karan Johar. Barkha Dutt perhaps goes a step into the right direction by asking her how a woman in love, spurned by a man she loved so deeply, is not even angry or vindictive. But we are back two steps when Sheela gives rehearsed answers with enough magnetism that you think, “Oh wow, what a woman.”
She snubs a journalist asking her about her criminal intent. In fact, repeatedly through the film, she projects how disappointed she is about how people continue to perceive her and the questions they want her to answer. Hasn’t she served jail time for her crimes. So then why are they asking her only about that? “There’s so much more.”
Okay, ma’am, then you tell us what it is that we should talk about? We don’t get to see any clips of her talking about her life right after parole, and how she married again, adopted a daughter and became a caregiver. So are you saying nobody asked these questions? And if nobody did, why don’t you volunteer the information yourself? When your fame is due to your criminal past, how do we not talk about it? That’s like saying, Dante does not want to talk about the inferno!
Also Read: Ma Anand Sheela, Osho’s Most Trusted Confidante, Opened Up And Said Sex Was Never Misused. Sure, Okay
‘Dinner with a murderer’, ‘Bosslady’ ‘Feminist heroine’ and other problematic notions peddled
I felt like I was missing a step here when everyone in Delhi’s intelligentsia and high society was fawning over Sheela and clicking pictures with her. I get it, pop culture celeb, but also a charged criminal, right? We hear people around her saying things like “dining with a murderer’ and then raising a glass to her. We hear words like ‘boss lady’ and ‘feminist heroine’ thrown around, which is cringe and probably speaks more about the people than it does about Sheela. She came to sell, but why you buying?
I tried to look at her with that empathetic gaze, and for that very reason, I was hoping she’d talk more about her motivations to do what she did. She said what all she pleaded guilty to and what she didn’t. But not the ‘why’ of it. There could be reasons. But are you telling me there was nothing else about her that could be shared? I was waiting for that empathy to flow, but when she gave me nothing, I felt nothing.
And then, of course, there’s the whole picture of her still being in love with Osho, the man that threw her to the wolves and whose anger she justified with such a calm demeanour. I know this is her truth, and her choice. But honestly, I cannot begin to tell you just how problematic peddling that idea right now is. She still has photos of him on her wall, for crying out loud.
The question is, does Sheela even want to be found?
This once fierce woman who often gave the finger to the cameras and said “Tough titties,” has been reduced to an enigma that is not sure if it wants to be unravelled.
We see clips of a young Sheela old interviews where she shuts down journalists and gives inflammatory speeches about rolling heads and what not. On one occasion, we hear the older Sheela say that life is a good performance, perhaps guiding us to believe she was putting up a performance then and she has always been the caring, loving and gentle woman we see now. But I think both Sheelas are a performance. In fact, pay close attention to the way she dismisses anything she doesn’t like now, and you might see that the young Sheela is still there, she’s only become a bit careful about what she lets you see.
So the biggest question in my head was, does Sheela even want to be found? If yes, then why won’t she make it easier for us by opening up a little more?
Verdict: I’m calling off this search for Sheela.
Towards the end of Searching For Sheela, a visible disappointed Sheela says something about journalists not listening to what she is saying because they’ve written their stories about her already. Well, I didn’t. And I was waiting for her, eyes and ears open, to show me this secret Sheela and her side of the story.
But much like a Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives, Searching For Sheela too believes in its own grandiose notion of “This is what it is, this is what we are, take it or leave it.” And then, it secretly hopes we’ll empathise with these larger than life subjects who won’t show us any real chinks in their armour.
How do we do that? How do we go from “Oh, she is a convicted criminal in a bioterrorism attack” to. “Aww she is a woman who was misrepresented, had to put up an act for the sake of the man she loved, and who is not capable of all the terrible crimes to her name?” Great, she doesn’t want redemption. So what does she want? Draw me a map, because in looking for you, I am lost!
And so, I am calling off this search. Because Sheela is so just so disappointed that we came searching for her.
Searching For Sheela is currently streaming on Netflix.
