User Reviews

Movie Review

Doing Time, Doing Vipassana (1997)

Directors: Ayelet Menahemi, Eilona Ariel

Synopsis:

In one of the world's largest prisons, Tihar Jail, located in a suburban area of New Delhi, India, a revolutionary transformation is taking place. In a prison holding ten thousand people, violence and substance abuse were common, until the appointment of a new Inspector General of Prison, Kiran Bedi, in May 1993. She was India's first female police officer and had big ambitions for the jail. The introduction of more modern facilities and better inmate care were a good starting point for the institution, but Bedi wanted to go farther and deeper to make the prison less a place of hellish punishment, and more somewhere for personal development. She believed that with this different attitude to the inmates, there will be less of a chance of the prisoners coming back.

The goal of Vipassana is to take a journey with closed eyes and come out of it a better person. The word translates to "seeing things as they truly are" and strives to give people a reality check at the end of their courses on the teachings. After a suggestion from a young prison officer called Rejoinder Kumar, Bedi enlisted the help of legendary Vipassana teacher S.N. Goenka to organize a course of Vipassana for 50-60 inmates to test the results of these religious teachings. The programme was a success and inmates begged for more, so the next time Goenka visited, Bedi made sure to involve as many people as she could in the ten-day detox. She crowded one thousand inmates into one tent where they abstained from talking, drinking, violence, sexual activity and lying for ten days. Several foreign prisoners could not praise the practice enough, a Somalian inmate claiming that, "you see things as they truly are. You are the only one that brings yourself misery." The course often leaves inmates weeping after the long period of self reflection and soul searching. They saw the anger and distress they had brought upon the people and relatives of those they had been involved with and felt guilty.

After the incredible success of Tihar Jail, the Indian Government has sent out circulars to all the Indian jails recommending the practice of Vipassana with their inmates. This spreading has also revealed dramatic results in other countries such as New Zealand and the United States.

Review:

I enjoyed this film very much because it showed me how religion can have incredible transformation effects even on the most hardened of criminals. I was shocked when I saw inmates come out of the programme weeping, after they finally understood how much they had hurt society and the people around them. Although the filming of the movie was not wonderful, I liked the insider point of view and unique perspective of religious teachings inside jails that are given to the viewer.

Prior to this film, I did not possess too much knowledge on the concept and goals of Vipassana, but I think that I have learnt a lot more about the true effects of these religious teachings and how they focus on self-improvement.

The movie was 52 minutes long, so it was shorter than the average film, however it captured my attention immediately and held it until the very end. The directors certainly managed to cram a lot of information about the teachings and their effects on hardened criminals into the feature, and I needed a few minutes to process it all before I could sit down and reflect on what I had seen.

I strongly encourage others to watch this film if they would like to learn more about Vipassana or enjoy watching transformations of mindset from religious teachings. I was left amazed by the level of success the prison had seen from the courses and at the same time confused about why more jails have not introduced this into their systems as well.

Rate: 9/10