Starring: Heather Graham, Marisa Tomei, Jimi Mistry
Director: Daisy Von Scherler Mayer
Rated: M15+
The Guru is a cheerful bit of nonsense in the Crocodile Dundee tradition but with the Bollywood treatment.
Jimi Mistry (from East is East) is Ramu, a dance instructor in India. But his movie dreams compel him to go to New York to become a star. Instead, he finds himself a waiter who unwittingly auditions for porn movies. (Michael McKean is expertly satiric as the director.)
Since his life is always unpredictable, he finds himself stepping in for a guru, the worse for drink, at a swanky party (managed by Christine Baranski, who is also very funny as the snobbish hostess).
Before you can say swami, Ramu is all the rage, dispensing advice, consulted by wealthy women. Actually, he gets all his wisdom from his porn co-star, played with a sweet naivety by Heather Graham. He is also entangled with his hostess’s daughter, Marisa Tomei. How can it all end?
There is a lot of fish out of water comedy as Indian culture meets New York. There is a great deal of satire at the expense of New Age trendies as well as of the ‘adult’ film industry.
The climax, as in so many recent films, is a wedding which ends in a shambles – even though everybody lives happily ever after.
If you want to see a song from Grease done Bollywood style, this is your film.
