A group of artistically concerned Hindu leaders living in Los Angeles campaigned to screen a preview of Mike Myers’ new comedy The Love Guru this week and were flabbergasted by what they witnessed after Paramount Pictures granted their request.
The Hindu activist group, led by Rajan Zed, expressed interest in previewing the comedy after rumors of its offensive material towards Hindi religion and culture. After the screening those opinions were further validated by Zed and his fellow group members.
Not only did they find the film ‘disrespectful to Hindus and their beliefs’ but Zed is also urging the Hindu Community to boycott the film saying it “lampoons Hinduism and Hindu concepts and uses Hindu terms frivolously.” (WENN)
In an interview following the screening on Thursday, Zed expressed his disappointment further by saying it was even worse than what he’d gathered through the film’s trailer, websites and other media.
His further negative comments of the film included criticizing Myer’s character repeatedly narrating penis jokes, mocking yoga, mocking the concept of the third eye, inducing elephant copulation in front of the crowd, and “whose goal in life seems to appear on the Oprah Winfrey show.”
Okay so apparently it’s offensive. Somehow that’s not incredibly shocking considering it’s a HOLLYWOOD blockbuster. Nor should the Hindu community expect anything less. To cut the film some slack, its advertising reveals its slapstick Indian-slurring mockery so no one who pays to see Guru should expect otherwise. The problem lies in a mass audience’s desire to see it anyway and follow through on their temptation, even if some sense its derogatory tone.
Which is why I can understand and appreciate the concern spawning out of the Los Angeles Hindu community, but….they live there, it’s hard for me to believe they don’t know what to expect from what the city’s film industry creates by now.
Still, why make films like these that have no artistic or comedic value? Zed defends his public reaction by stating, “Today it is Hinduism, tomorrow Hollywood might attempt to denigrate another religion.” He also commented on the fueling of Indian stereotypes the film is determined to keep alive and well in the West.
Comedies have made fun of other religions in the past. Monty Python’s Life of Brian made a politically incorrect spoof on the story of Jesus. But the difference in tone is quite distinct.
First of all, Monty Python’s films were mainly funded in Great Britain, whose film industry is a far cry from Hollywood’s dumbed down sense of bathroom humor. Secondly, Brian’s witty, clever dialogue that references the bible and its primitive times is an unquestionably worthy effort in the name of intelligent and unique comedy.
But films like Myers’ Guru do nothing for the genre, nor does it do anything in helping western culture understand the mysteries of the east in a sensitive time in international history. And that is undoubtedly a subject Rajan Zed and I agree on.
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