The Guru is a nice idea about clashing cultures and filmmaking philosophies that falls horribly off track and opts out for cheap laughs and some sort of misplaced commentary on the porn industry. Because of that, there is little to separate it out from any other cheap comedy, which is a shame, because the subject matter starts out with more than just that to offer.
It opens as the story of a young Indian boy (Asian Indian you dope) in love with Hollywood. His parents drag him to watch Bollywood movies, but he longs for the likes of John Travolta and Olivia Newton John instead. So he grows up, and sets off to America to fulfill his dreams of becoming a real Hollywood star. But once he arrives, strangely our hero Ramu (Jimi Mistry) ceases to be Indian. What was a story about young Indian men coming to America… where it seems they can only get jobs as cab drivers, turns into just another blasé tale of any random youngster flopping as an actor in LA
Ramu’s pure, if naïve, dream of becoming a real actor gets transformed into a simple lust for money and success. In the end, apparently he never really cared about movies, he just wanted a lot of cash. His lust for success leads him to porn, where he fails to perform, but does meet an experienced young porn actress named Sharona (Heather Graham), who begins teaching him the ways of love for money. With her knowledge, Ramu starts tricking rich people into thinking he is a Guru. This is easy to do, because all wealthy Californian’s have a secret weakness: They can be hypnotized by the Macarena. Disguising the dance as some spiritual ritual, he teaches the Macarena to the wealthy, convincing them to take their clothes off and have lots of sex. They pay him, he makes loads of cash.
The movie only gets weaker from there. Oddly we end up on a journey condemning the porn industry as The Guru totally abandons the Indian influences which made it so original to begin with, becoming a straight boy saves girl from porn story… told with more than the usual amount of slushy seller accents. The Guru is a light and funny adventure, but fails horribly to distinguish itself from any other random comedy, favoring instead tired out contrivances and bad Bollywood dance numbers.
