USA, July 20, 2008: The latest character to test the good humor of Indian Americans is Mike Myers’ “The Love Guru,” a narcissistic spiritual leader whose goals in life are to meet girls and appear on “Oprah.” The film opened Friday (June 20) in theaters nationwide.
Enough is enough, some Hindu activists claim. For them, lampooning a guru crosses the line from acceptable social satire to mockery of a minority religious culture little understood by Americans. Some Hindu groups have asked Paramount Pictures for an apology and other initiatives. Rajan Zed, a Hindu chaplain from Nevada and a vocal protester, said “the problem is that cinema is a powerful medium, and people who are not well-versed in Hinduism get misinformed.”
But opinions differ inside the Hindu community. The Washington-based Hindu American Foundation had taken a wait-and-see approach and after a screening in Minneapolis on Thursday, board members found it “vulgar, crude … and tasteless” but nonetheless few screeners thought it “anti-Hindu or mean-spirited.” Vijaya Emani, former president of the Federation of India Community Associations in Ohio, had plain-spoken advice to Hindu protesters after seeing the film: “Lighten up.”
Deepak Sarma, an associate professor of religious studies at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, expressed concern that the film could fuel “a kind of jingoistic Americanism” that makes fun of those who are different. “The amount of damage for the understanding of Hinduism in America will be tremendous,” said Sarma, editor of “Hinduism: A Reader.”
In the movie, Myers portrays the Indian-trained “Guru Pitka,” who oversees a self-help empire built on books such as “If You’re Happy and You Know It, Think Again.” Much of the humor seems to be aimed at 8-year-olds, with scores of attempts to elicit laughs based on bodily functions. Most reviews have been unfavorable, and the New York Times called the movie “unfunny.”
Virginia Lam, a spokeswoman for Paramount said the new film is in the same spirit as Myers’ Austin Powers films. “No one could confuse, or has confused, this film as intending to tackle serious issues surrounding faith and religion — just as no one confused Austin Powers as being a commentary on globalism and trans-Atlantic relations,” Lam said in a statement. While some advocate a boycott, others see the controversy as an opportunity to better explain Hinduism since the media is listening. “Sometimes, it takes perceived provocations such as this address topics such Hinduism in front of a larger audience,” said Brent Plate, an associate professor of religion and the visual arts at Texas Christian University. “In a strange way, they get us talking about these issues.”