Screening + Q&A, Wed, Oct. 19 7:00 pm PDT
With Jai Uttal and special guests TBA + video greeting from director David Silver

Brilliant Disguise tells the unique story of a group of inspired Western spiritual seekers from the 60s, who in meeting the great American teacher, Ram Dass, followed him to India to meet his Guru, Neem Karoli Baba, familiarly known as Maharaji. Two days before he left his body, Maharaji instructed K.C. Tewari to take care of the Westerners, which he did resolutely until the day he died in 1997.

CHRISTOPHER B. SMITH
RAFAEL FILM CENTER
1118 Fourth Street
San Rafael, CA 94901

K.C. Tewari—in the guise of a headmaster of a boys school in the foothills of the Himalayas—was secretly a High Yogi, frequently able to go into altered states of trance, known as Samadhi, at any moment.

Brilliant Disguise features Krishna Das, Jai Uttal, Raghu Markus, Radha Baum, and others – including K.C’s two sons, as well as rare archival interviews with K.C. himself. Set in the stunning backdrop of India, the film is adorned with spectacular and moving footage from the 1989 Maha Kumbha Mela—the largest spiritual gathering in the world, attended by K.C. and the group of Westerners featured throughout this colorful biopic.

This film is the story of a man who represents the intrinsic potential in all human beings to live in direct contact with the Divine Presence. K.C. chose to live within the humble disguise of a husband and school teacher. The brilliance is K.C.’s ability at a moment’s notice to go beyond himself into sublime states of consciousness.

Director: David Silver (US 2022) 77 min.