An homage to Bollywood, "Grease" and possibly Dr. Ruth, "The Guru" could be listed prominently in a cinematic encyclopedia under the heading of 'cute cute cute'.
As a child, Ramu is seen enjoying john Travolta and Olivia Newton-John singing "You're the One That I Want", which began his love of dance, music and Americana. He moves to the US as an adult to live with his cousin but the streets are not paved with the proverbial gold be had envisioned and when his career as a waiter is short-lived, he answers a want-ad requesting an actor. Much to his discomfort, the movie turns out to be pornography and he is, uh, unable to fulfill the requirements but he does become friends with his co-star, Sharona. She is sympathetic to his plight and begins giving him sexual advice so that he can become a full-fledged porn star. But he takes this advice and becomes a sexual guru who eventually charms Upper East Side socialites, most notable Lexi, and Sharona feels betrayed.
Needless to say, its all okay at the end, and so will you be, if you just enjoy it for what it is. I like the movie far too much to point out the logistic problems, but they are there.
I loved the musical numbers, all the actors are very well-cast, and some of it is hilarious. I liked Daisy's "Party Girl" a lot and after seeing this, I'll make sure to check out her other movies. 8/10.
The Guru
2002
Action / Comedy / Music / Romance
The Guru
2002
Action / Comedy / Music / Romance
Plot summary
South Asian Ramu Gupta has always been fascinated with western movie musicals and has wanted to be an American movie star primarily as a dancer. So when he hears from his friend Vijay Rao about his fabulous life in Manhattan with a penthouse apartment and Mercedes, Ramu decides to move from his home in Delhi to the US to live with Vijay as he pursues his dream of being a star. Upon his arrival in Manhattan, Ramu learns that Vijay's life is nothing like he mentioned, he driving a cab and living in a run down cramped top floor apartment with two fellow South Asian roommates, Ramu who would be the fourth in the apartment. Ramu nonetheless just wants a chance to prove himself in the entertainment business. Among Ramu's many missteps include stumbling into the porn movie business where he can't get it up in such a setting anyway, and working as a waiter at least to earn some money. But it is a wait job at a private South Asian themed birthday party for a lost and directionless socialite named Lexi organized by her overbearing mother Chantal that Ramu gets a chance at a somewhat legitimate acting job when he is asked to fill-in at the last minute at the party for an incapacitated Swami Bu. Having no credentials as a swami, he decides to dance and channel the sex advice given to him by Sharonna, one of his porn co-stars. Ramu and the information are a hit, especially with Lexi, who feels she has found her own voice for the first time in her life. As such, she wants to help Ramu spread the swami word, most specifically as a sex guru, to the masses. Not knowing what that word is, Ramu again turns to Sharonna for advice, she in turn believing he is asking solely to further his career in porn. Sharonna agrees to mentor him on the condition that he not divulge what she would teach and tell him to anyone as they are her innermost thoughts as a way to cope with her own life. That life is a double one, where her firefighter fiancé Rusty, a devout Catholic, knows nothing about her being a porn star, believing she is just Shari, an innocent (i.e. virginal) substitute public school teacher. As Ramu becomes more and more successful in this pseudo acting job with the help of both Sharonna and Lexi, he has to reconcile this success with the fact that it is all a lie. He also has to reconcile it with his burgeoning romantic feelings for Sharonna, most specifically reconciling the fact that he has not only lied to her, but betrayed her confidence.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.WEB 1080p.WEBMovie Reviews
Extremely enjoyable fluff
Unusual background, same old romcom
British Indian actor (and unofficial Nicolas Cage lookalike) Jimi Mistry plays an Indian dance teacher who comes to the USA to gain fame and fortune as an actor and, through a series of misunderstandings, happenstances and other improbabilities, becomes a sex adviser guru, spouting half-baked self-help platitudes which are fed to him in all innocence by Heather Graham's highly unlikely porn actress.
The suspension of disbelief default level is set quite high with this one, but the likability of the characters helps to make it achievable.
There's nothing terribly unusual in the plotting or scripting, but the background and setting generally is fairly original.
Jimi Mistry is good, Heather Graham tries hard but comes across as fairly vapid, and Marisa Tomei is excellent (and looks great in her underwear).
There are some mock Bollywood musical sequences which are quite good fun, and the whole thing is fairly light and amusing.
The Guru
I think the only reason I knew and wanted to see this film was because of the sexy leading actress from Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, and I'm glad I tried it, from director Daisy Von Scherler Mayer (Madeline). Basically Ramu Chandra Gupta (East Is East's Jimi Mistry) is bored with Bollywood films, but has been fascinated with Hollywood since childhood. So he travels to America, the country where dreams are made, to try and find fame. His first role is not what he expected when accidentally auditioned and won a role in a porn film, along with pron star Sharonna (Heather Graham),who keeps her career secret from fiancée Rusty McGee (Dash Mihok). Somehow Ramu gets himself into a situation where he pretends to be a sex guru, and borrowing the sexual advice of Sharonna, he slowly becomes well known as a rising star sex guru, eventually appearing on television (for his family home to see). There is the obvious point of the film where it seems bad things happen to almost everyone, but it passes, Ramu eventually confesses his fraud act, and Sharonna not only is found out as a porn star, but her groom is gay. So in the end, Ramu gets his girl, I guess a good career, and the ending sees them fly off in a car, just like the end of Grease. Also starring Marisa Tomei as Lexi, The Grinch's Christine Baranski as Chantal, Michael McKean as Dwain, Rob Morrow as Josh Goldstein and Sanjeev Bhaskar as Rasphal the Cook. The comedy is light but effective, the sexuality of the film is slightly more prominent, not a bad film. Worth watching!