Archive for The Guru Press
Jan 31, 2003
The Los Angeles Times Film Review: The Guru
Calibrated to please, “The Guru” is a down-market but enjoyable goof. It’s also not as dumb as it looks. The filmmakers aren’t interested in subverting clichés, just tweaking them. Central to the movie’s charm is how it knowingly taps into two of our more cherished mythologies — inevitable true love and immigrant triumphalism — but always at an oblique angle.
Jan 31, 2003
Slipping Insights In with Laughs
While there has been no recent shortage of well-received art- house films out of India (last year’s “Monsoon Wedding” comes to mind), the big, bawdy mainstream film meant to properly enlighten moviegoers at large about Bollywood and all things Indian has proved elusive until now. Enter “The Guru,” a major-studio (Universal) flick that puts an Indian spin on a classic American tale of innocence lost and dollars gained.
Jan 29, 2003
Entertainment Weekly Film Review: The Guru
Bright dialogue and finely embroidered performances adorn The Guru like festive beading on a pair of made-in-India bedroom slippers — unexpected and inordinately cheering in the drab dead of winter. This very funny studio picture plays like an indie lark, a blending of venerable (and currently trendy) Bollywood musical conventions, Hollywood romantic-comedy formula, satiric ”Guffman”-esque riffs, and droll parody at the expense of the enduring American porn-flick industry.
Jan 28, 2003
The Village Voice Film Review: The Guru
Bolly-go-lightly hybrid The Guru manages to have its dosa and eat it, too—allowing that culture is a con game, while seeking pleasure in the deception… Authenticity is gleefully moot here: An agent calls Ramu “Indian, or—excuse me, Native American,” while Marisa Tomei’s New Age burnout delivers a line of cell-phone patter as precise and vacuous as a DeLillo outtake: “I want the suede not the leather. I want every color.” The Guru shows similar appetite.
Oct 20, 2002
Box Office Magazine Film Review: The Guru
From its fish-out-of-water scenario and rags-to-riches trajectory to its predictable twists and convoluted conclusion, “The Guru” is every bit as formulaic as Working Title’s earlier comic fodder. Nevertheless, it’s easy to forgive this colorful fable’s foibles, principally because it never takes itself too seriously. There’s much to relish here, including a raft of deft supporting performances. A brisk narrative is embellished with some exuberant and imaginatively choreographed musical numbers, while Tracey Jackson’s piquant screenplay balances bawdy comedy with a perceptive critique of cultural flirtation. Entertaining, if not exactly enlightening.
