Main Cast: Heather Graham, Marisa Tomei, Jimi Mistry, Michael McKean, Christine Baranski
Release Year: 2002
Country: US/FR/UK
Run Time: 91 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
A visitor from the mysterious East arrives in New York -- not to offer the wisdom of the ages, but to make it big as a dancer in this "fish-out-of-water" comedy. Ramu Chandra Gupta (Jimi Mistry) grew up in India on a steady diet of movie musicals, particularly local Bollywood spectaculars and vintage American song-and-dance films. Ramu grew up with the dream of one day making it big as a dancer, and in time he found a job as a dance instructor. However, Raimu believes his destiny lies in the United States, and he leaves India behind to relocate to New York City. Unfortunately, Ramu's bright new future isn't exactly awaiting him, and he's soon sharing an overstuffed apartment with distant relatives in Queens while working in an Indian restaurant. An audition for a film director named Dwain (Michael McKean) turns out to be a tryout for a porno movie -- a role Ramu does not get when he fails to rise to the occasion. However, he does make the acquaintance of one of Dwain's "starlets," Sharona (Heather Graham), with whom he soon finds himself infatuated. Ramu gets a job entertaining guests at a party catered by his relatives when the performer originally booked is incapacitated. While Ramu's Bollywood-style dancing goes over well enough, he makes a deeper impression on Lexi (Marisa Tomei), an enthusiastic but half-bright student of Eastern philosophy who regards Ramu a font of wisdom as well as a hot date. Ramu quickly becomes the toast of New York's upper crust, and scores an agent, Josh (Rob Morrow), but how long will it be before folks realize Ramu is rather low on the enlightenment scale? And can he find happiness with Sharona while Lexi is still in the picture? The Guru also features Christine Baranski and Malachy McCourt. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
The Guru delves into subject matter that's long overdue for parody, but no less ripe for the delay: the trendy celebrity obsession with Eastern religion, seen in such stars as Madonna and Richard Gere. That it does this effectively is a pleasant surprise. But what makes Daisy von Scherler Mayer's film all the more likeable is its uncommon warmth, which qualifies it as a romantic comedy or wish-fulfillment fantasy as much as a satire. Setting the tone is the exquisite Jimi Mistry as Ramu Gupta, who leaves India to pursue Hollywood pipe dreams, but encounters a new variation on stock ethnic casting while serving as an emergency fill-in for a drunken swami. That he hoodwinks the stuffy Manhattanites at the party is a detail one just has to accept, but Mistry's earnest charisma makes this -- and his meteoric rise to fame -- that much easier to swallow. Himself a newcomer to Hollywood, and therefore a kindred spirit to his character, Mistry has a true dynamism that plays well alongside his leading ladies. Heather Graham in particular does much stronger work than her track record, while Marisa Tomei embraces the trickier task of humanizing her loopy socialite, who would have been a mere fool in lesser hands. These three are hopeless optimists, but The Guru chooses to love their foibles rather than ridicule them, a determining factor in the kind of movie it wants to be. This sentimental core is clear during the film's high point: a vibrant song and dance number that's a homage to both the traditional Bollywood cinema of Ramu's native land and to Grease, the American film that taught the young Ramu to dream. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
