Sometimes a film with no ad campaign, zero advance buzz and little publicity sneaks into theatres without fanfare and expectation, and delights you in simple ways, beyond the stale aspirations and accomplishments that permeate most of the calculated and cynical multiplex fare.
The Guru is such a film. Telling the charming story of a young Indian dance teacher who arrives in New York City with big dreams of being an American movie star and ends up as "The Guru of Sex," a dumbed-down, erotic counterpart to Deepak Chopra. The film is colorful, well-acted, sweet and genuinely funny.
Raised in India on a fusion of American and Bollywood musicals, Ramu Gupta (Jimi Mistry) has spent his entire life dreaming of coming to America to become a big Hollywood star. In the film's comic opening scenes, he's seen first as a boy, love struck by the rock and roll wiles of Olivia Newton John and John Travolta, and turned off by the woozy pageantry of Bollywood. These scenes have an inherent likeability and charm, which carries over to some pretty funny dance school scenes with the young adult Ramu, his dreams relegated to teaching second-rate Macarena classes to mature Indian women.
Arriving in New York in pursuit of his American Dream (defined in one hilarious line), he finds himself flopped out in a cramped apartment with three other Indian immigrants, and fired from his first job - as a waiter in an Indian restaurant. After a truly inspired "acting" audition, he inadvertently ends up the reluctant lead in a porn film, where he meets method actress Sharonna (Heather Graham), who unsuccessfully attempts to rectify his inability to perform.
Catering an uptown birthday party for privileged, depressed socialite (Marisa Tomei), he is mistaken for a spiritual Eastern guru, and after a funny musical number and a few silly rants about sexual gratification, his overnight stardom amongst Manhattan's upper crust begins to grow.
Soon all of New York is after private consultation from "The Guru of Sex," and a befuddled Ramu turns to Sharonna for sex advice. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the two of them begin to feel something for each other, and that the ruse becomes too big for Ramu to bear. But the real pleasure here is in the way the actors perform together, relishing their many comic zingers and clearly having as good of a time as the audience.
Although The Guru is relatively good-natured, as written by Tracey Jackson, it's got the heart of a real sex comedy. It's amusing to listen to all of the sexual jokes thrown up on the wall here, the majority of them working but a few falling flat. There's a terrific level of raunchiness in some of the dialogue, and it's bracing to hear some witty, fun adult banter for a change.
As a narrative, The Guru is a familiar rags-to-riches story, a cultural sex comedy and a polite satire. The satire itself, which takes gentle pokes at the porn industry as well as the commercialism and vacuous celebrity associated with self-help gurus, is relatively tame. But there's a surplus of energy and speed throughout the film to sustain the few stretches where the satire wanes.
As Ramu, British actor Mistry (the headstrong son of East is East) deserves to be the big American star to which his character so desperately aspires. He carries the film with a performance of depth and feeling, playing fast and loose with the farcical elements of the plot, while bringing home the sweet heart of the picture and his character.
Director Daisy von Scherler Mayer does a terrific job with her rich cast of comic support, principally Marisa Tomei in full comic-neurotic mode as a spoiled Upper East Side princess who becomes Ramu's lover and business manager, and Christine Baranski as her alternately repressed and sexually ravenous mother. There are also amusing turns by Michael McKean as a straight-faced porn director, Dwight Ewell as a doting drag queen and Bobby Cannavale as a gay fireman.
A nice surprise is Heather Graham, who was generously pegged as the "it" girl a few short years back and has, until now, failed to make good on her Boogie Nights promise. As she did in that film, she again plays a porn queen - and there's something about that role that seems to resonate with her. This is her best performance since Boogie Nights, and though I don't want to oversell her acting style - absent of any real technique, often vocally limited - there's a sincerity and warmth she brings to the role here that's appealing.
The Guru, with its humble expectations and joyous lead performance by Jimi Mistry, is a modest treat that has healthy doses of humor, heart and satire. It may be a "small" film by definition, but it has some big laughs. And though no one will be surprised by its conclusion, you might be warmed by its inspiration and how it manages to be sweet yet silly, sometimes together. The Guru is a modest film, and it's precisely that lack of pretension combined with its sincerity that make it so much fun to watch.
