Although almost a year old, Morgan Freeman’s Nat Geo documentary on India called Story of God still remains a must watch documentary.
Even if you might not be in the habit of watching documentaries, too boring, lengthy, not enough masala in them, there must be those exceptional ones that are just a must watch.
The Story of God with Morgan Freeman is one such documentary that explores the idea of God, what is your as an individual, meaning of gGod and what is their origin.
It asks the viewer themself to create their own definition of God, instead of settling for one that has already been established by varied parties.
Freeman is both the host of this six-part series as well as the executive producer.
The documentary takes the viewer on a virtual trip with Freeman and allows you to explore different religions and cultures for yourself.
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Here I go through a couple of strong points of the documentary and what makes it a must watch in my book:
1. Morgan Freeman:
There is a popular joke that Morgan Freeman could read the Telephone directory and it would still be the most interesting thing in the world.
Well, here Freeman is not reading the Telephone book here, but even still once you start the documentary it will be extremely difficult to pull yourself away from his magestic voice.
Freeman pulls you in with his voice and words and they intrigue you to wanting to know more and see more.
I had thought I’d only watch the first part, but ended up watching all 6.
2. The Direction:
After Freeman, I would want to bring attention to the direction of the documentary and how in bits and places it almost gives a virtual reality/360 feel where it truly seems as you are present in that place.
The direction, for the most part, was clean, crisp without too many added effects, yes even documentaries can go overboard, and the bright natural lighting it used enhanced the experience.
3. The Different Cultures You Are Introduced To:
From the Mayan temples in Guatemala to the pyramids of Egypt, from the holy land of Banaras/ Varanasi to many other places, all were explored by Freeman in order to learn about religion, culture and of course God.
The good thing about this documentary that I was impressed by was the way it deals with the varied amount of cultures it included and how it did not ever pit one against the other. Each culture is given its own unique space and not any is shown as either superior or inferior to another.
4. The Message It Imparts:
The message and knowledge it imparts it definitely something that, for me, is the best thing in the documentary.
Obviously coming from Nat Geo, you would expect it to be well-researched and thoroughly vetted with good, strong facts, but it is also how they have managed to still keep that emotional connect.
Religion is all about faith, but this documentary managed to join that with making the viewer understand in a true factual manner about one of the biggest questions of humanity has been dealing with.
Image Credits: Google Images
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