Enlighten Up! is a documentary film about Kate Churchill’s belief that Yoga can transform someone’s life. She chose Nick Rosen, a Yoga Skeptic as her subject and followed him around until he finds that practice that suits him. So Kate immersed Nick into a six-month yoga program for him to experience the different types of Yoga. After the body twists that Nick describes as turning his body into pretzel, he wants to find hard facts to understand why people say that yoga is the way to Enlightenment. And so his true journey to understand yoga began.

He travelled the world and went to India where Yoga was believed to originate. However, Yoga alone cannot bring enlightenment to anyone if they do not associate it with a religious belief. For Yoga alone is just a mere physical and mental discipline. It is more than just stretching your physical and mental abilities to the limit. You see Yoga, is more of a meditative practice for both Buddhism and Hinduism. The major branches of Yoga are Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Hatha Yoga. The word Yoga meant a lot of things in Sanskrit and originated from the Sanskrit word “yuj” meaning “control”, “to yoke” or “to unite”.

Yoga is considered as a philosophy in life. However, Yoga outside of India is more known as a mere exercise rather than a part of one’s religious belief. Well, who could blame them? With all that sweat and muscle workout that you get from all those body twisting why wouldn’t you think so? It is even believed to help improve one’s health. But then, if you are like Nick in the movie searching for enlightenment, you should understand that Yoga is beyond the physical gains that you can get out of it. Yoga is a philosophy. So if one aims to achieve Nirvana as Buddha did, one has to accompany it with religious practices to achieve spiritual high.

I think this is where the movie or the film makers missed out. They have shown people doing yoga in India and interviewed gurus but failed to emphasize why Yoga is practiced in India. But anyhow, the movie ended well. You’ll get a good laugh on the wise cracks from Nick Rosen, a journalist who was chosen to be Churchill’s guinea pig partly because he was willing to do it, a hunk that looks good in the camera and smart. Anyhow, to sum the movie up, people should realize that to be happy is to be his true self and love it, which is what Rosen learned after all the troubles that he went through.
  

Movie Statistics:
Directed by Kate Churchill
Written by Kate Churchill, Jonathon Hexner
Starring: Norman Allen, Alan Finger, Sharon Gannon, B.K.S. Iyengar, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, Cyndi Lee, David Life, Dharma Mittra, Dallas Page, Nick Rosen
Duration: 82 minutes
Released on 12 June 2008 (US), 17 October 2008 (Brazil)
Country: United States
Language: English
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closeAuthor: Aarti Bhardwaj
Name: Aarti Bhardwaj

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