Cult of Fear – Asaram Bapu review: A fair look at rise and fall of notorious Godman
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A new documentary available on Discovery+ narrates the rise and the fall of one of India’s most reverred Godmen – Asumal Sirumalani Harpalani alias Asaram Bapu. Titled Cult of fear – Asaram Bapu, the three-episode series presents both sides of the story – the one which continues to believe in the extraordinary power of the “wronged” Bapu, and the other which helped in his conviction in two rape cases, including one of a minor.
To understand the world of Asaram Bapu, one has to really go deep into the very fabric of the nation, which relies heavily on the idea of blind faith. The docu-series slowly follows the institution, the Ashram, and its workings, and features victims of Bapu’s cult exposing the reality of his grandeur. It gets as real as it can get. To the extent that it makes you wonder how this institution continues to have around 40 million followers.
Nothing is hidden or under-represented in the documentary, including blurred, but very disturbing graphics of the two young boys whose decapitated bodies were dug out from the backyard of Bapu’s Ashram. The series shows Bapu’s followers protesting outside the Jodhpur jail refusing to have even a single drop of water until the man is allowed to meet them; the real-life footage of Bapu’s son, Narayan Sai, being on a run for weeks until he’s caught by the police near Kurukshetra.
In the Cult of Fear, you see researchers, authors, journalists and the victims expressing how a cult happens to exist, its growth, how people in it are asked to divorce the real world, and live to serve their leader. And why do they conform to this strict structure.
At one point, one of the former followers of Bapu reveals that the Ashram asks its male disciples to stay away from women, so much so that the food they cook is unaccepted to them, and even a glimpse of their shadow is worth running away from. “Nari nark ka dwaar (a woman is a door to hell),” says the man citing Bapu. This testimony about Bapu’s lessons against women becomes crucial as you realise that the same man is now serving jailtime for raping a 16-year-old girl.
In another testimony, a journalist records how Narayan Sai and Asaram Bapu would rape women on the pretext of ‘blessing’ them with abundance. “Young women were lured into having sex with them because they were told that they are bedding God himself,” she says.
Content retrieved from: https://www.indiatoday.in/entertainment/ott/story/cult-of-fear-asaram-bapu-review-a-fair-look-at-rise-and-fall-of-indias-notorious-godman-2673269-2025-02-01.
