'THE GURU' SATISFIES AN ITCH FOR SATIRE.Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic 'THE GURU'' is such a delightfully silly masala of Hollywood genre conventions, Bollywood fantasy and porn movie stupidity that it's beside the point to wish it had lived up to its original conception. Eliminated from the final cut was a serious theme from earlier script drafts in which the film's troubled protagonist - a dancer from Delhi - undergoes a serious conflict between his materialistic and metaphysical sides. What emerges is formulaic, but director Daisy von Scherler Mayer Daisy von Scherler Mayer (born 1965 in New York, New York, U.S.) is an american director. Biography Daisy is a daughter of Sasha von Scherler and Paul Avila Mayer, and is granddaughter of Edwin Justus Mayer. (``Party Girl'') handles it with a winking sense of satire. The title character, Ramu (the talented British actor Jimi Mistry Jimi Mistry (born 1973 in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England) is a British Asian actor. He first gained exposure playing a doctor on the British soap opera EastEnders. ), fell in love with America as a kid when he sneaked out of a boring Hindi song- and-dance spectacle and into a screening of ``Grease'' at a Delhi multiplex. Ramu follows his dream to join his childhood buddy Vijay (Emil Marwa) in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , whose claims of great wealth no one back home believes. Except Ramu. Who is wrong. This leads him, naively, into a disastrous attempt at male lead duty in a triple-X production. To try to help, experienced co-star co·star also co-star n. A starring actor or actress given equal status with another or others in a play or film. tr. & intr.v. co·starred, co·star·ring, co·stars To act or present as a costar. Sharrona (who else but Heather Graham?) shares some pseudo-spiritual visualizing she uses to psych herself for the hard-core scenes. When Ramu finds himself having to impersonate im·per·son·ate tr.v. im·per·son·at·ed, im·per·son·at·ing, im·per·son·ates 1. To assume the character or appearance of, especially fraudulently: impersonate a police officer. 2. a swami at a birthday party for depressed heiress Lexi (Marisa Tomei), Sharrona's words come in handy Verb 1. come in handy - be useful for a certain purpose be - have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun); "John is rich"; "This is not a good answer" . Soon, he's Lexi's very personal spiritual guide, and she dreams up plans to promote him as the Guru of Sex. Somehow the ludicrous plot dovetails nicely with the elaborate Indian production numbers that Ramu's increasingly troubled mind projects. It's just the everyday nuttiness of Bollywood, India's popular cinema, and here it finds surprising tonal agreement with American romantic comedy complications. Mistry plays Ramu's fish-out-of-water antics with intelligence and a subtle, cosmopolitan sophistication so·phis·ti·cate v. so·phis·ti·cat·ed, so·phis·ti·cat·ing, so·phis·ti·cates v.tr. 1. To cause to become less natural, especially to make less naive and more worldly. 2. . Graham locates uncharacteristic emotional depth in a woman whose whole existence is an unexamined series of actress guises. And boy, can she do those Indian dances! Ultimately, ``The Guru'' proves open-minded, nonjudgmental non·judg·men·tal adj. Refraining from judgment, especially one based on personal ethical standards. Adj. 1. nonjudgmental and so far beyond multicultural, it ever so lightly touches the universal. Guess heavy contemplation wasn't necessary for enlightenment in this case after all. THE GURU - Three stars (R: sex, nudity, language, racism) Starring: Jimi Mistry, Heather Graham, Marisa Tomei. Director: Daisy von Scherler Mayer. Running time: 1 hr. 31 min. Playing: Selected theaters. In a nutshell: Goofy but pleasing. |
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