The Guru

2 out of 5 2

From Tony Hancock in The Rebel to Peter Sellers in Being There, there's a strong satirical tradition of lovable dolts coming to the big city and getting taken up as primitive geniuses by shallow cafe society. There's no bite or edge to this movie, though; it's goofy, soft-centred romcom slush, with some very half-hearted Bollywood pastiche.

  1. The Guru
  2. Production year: 2002
  3. Country: Rest of the world
  4. Cert (UK): 15
  5. Runtime: 94 mins
  6. Directors: Daisy von Scherler Mayer
  7. Cast: Heather Graham, Jimi Mistry, Marisa Tomei
  8. More on this film

Jimi Mistry is the Indian actor who comes to New York full of dreams, winds up doing porn, and then somehow becomes a sex guru to New York's dinner-party set. Marisa Tomei gives a woefully uncomfortable, unfunny performance as the spoilt Park Avenue princess who seduces him. She is the naughty brunette set up in contradistinction to the gorgeous blonde Heather Graham with whom he is really in love, a porn star whose homespun philosophy he plagiarises for his guru shtick. This weak performance in a weak role is a very dodgy career move for Graham after Boogie Nights.

There are a few funny lines: PC New Yorkers keep calling Indians "native Americans" and when someone asks if any Indians have ever made it big in the US, all anyone can think of is Apu in The Simpsons. But these moments don't really justify the admission price.

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