In India, a crush of humanity on the path to spiritual bliss

The figure is almost impossible to comprehend.

Whether it’s 30 million people or 70 million, the number of pilgrims who gather every 12 years on a dusty triangle of land between the Ganges and Yamuna rivers near Allahabad, India, is mind-blowing. Even the satellite photo that opens the documentary, “Short Cut to Nirvana: Kumbh Mela,” does not do justice to what amounts to an almost infinite mass of humanity.

Nor does the sight of an endless tent city, which springs up for six weeks to accommodate the pilgrims who converge to bathe in the sacred waters of the Ganges to purify their sins during the Hindu festival of Kumbh Mela.

Hindus and spiritual searchers of other faiths make the trek to a desolate spot that is actually under water for part of the year. During Kumbh Mela, the area is extremely hot during the day and very cold at night, but this does not prevent the denizens of the temporary metropolis from pursuing their divine mission.

For what is billed as the largest gathering of people on the face of the Earth, filmmakers Nick Day and Maurizio Benazzo utilize a young man named Swami Krishnanand and several Westerners as tour guides, focusing on the event’s colorful if dusty aspects. Gurus and sects from all over the world set up booths demonstrating their individual brands of Samadhi (deep meditation) in what is essentially a carnival of spirituality.

A Japanese woman buries herself in a customized pit for three days while one guru sits on a throne of nails suspended over burning coals and another holds his right arm aloft as he has for the last 20 years. The most disturbing sight involves a ritual in which a sage stretches and ties his penis around a long stick on which people then stand after he passes the stick between his legs and holds it behind him. Not all the practitioners are so extreme, with most following traditional forms of devotion such as yoga and quietly sitting for long periods. Interviews with these holy people reflect the long journeys, both literal and metaphysical, that each has made on his or her own road to nirvana.

Krishnanand’s unfettered enthusiasm makes him an ideal escort for Kumbh Mela, gaining the filmmakers access to scenes they may not have found on their own. Likewise, the Americans featured, including a young couple -- Justin Davis, a recent religious studies graduate, and his girlfriend, Dyan Summers, a nurse-practitioner -- are valuable in providing a Western perspective on the experience.

Benazzo and Day offer a nice overview on such a colossal event, which gets surprisingly little attention from the Western media. Their film most closely resembles similar documentaries made about Nevada’s Burning Man, but it is more successful mainly because of the difference in the two festivals’ focus. Whereas the much smaller, New Age-style Burning Man seemingly attracts people for as many reasons as there are attendees, the purpose of Kumbh Mela is more singular.

The movie’s title refers to the notion that a pilgrimage to Kumbh Mela is equal to 1,000 regular pilgrimages. But if the film offers any lesson, it is that nirvana is not easily attainable, so there really are no shortcuts.

*

‘Short Cut to Nirvana: Kumbh Mela’

MPAA rating: Unrated

Times guidelines: Nudity, penile stretching and twisting

A Mela Films release. Producers-directors Maurizio Benazzo, Nick Day. Cinematographer Maurizio Benazzo. Editor Nick Day. Music Bob Muller. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes. In Hindi and English with English subtitles.

Exclusively at the Landmark Nuart through Thursday, 11272 Santa Monica Blvd., West Los Angeles, (310) 281-8223.