Product Details

• Actors: Jimi Mistry, Heather Graham, Marisa Tomei, Michael McKean, Dash Mihok
• Format: Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English, Hindi
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Universal Studios
• VHS Release Date: September 2, 2003
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (68 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00009KNVT
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #294,539 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The Day-Glo delights of India's Bollywood musicals collide with the crossed-love conventions of Hollywood romantic comedies in The Guru. Jimi Mistry, a young Indian named Ramu who wants to live the American dream and become famous, moves to New York and finds only menial work in restaurants. But when he mistakenly gets cast in a skin flick, he meets a sweet and thoughtful porn star (Heather Graham) whose philosophical mix of sex and spirituality come in handy when Ramu has to pretend to be a swami for an upper-crust birthday party. The birthday girl (Marisa Tomei) seizes upon Ramu's cribbed aphorisms and leads Ramu into a career as a sex guru. The Guru's uneven script squanders much of its comic potential, but the stars have charm to burn--and when the movie launches into its glorious musical numbers, it enters a realm of delirious glee. --Bret Fetzer

From The New Yorker

Daisy von Scherler Mayer's film stars Jimi Mistry as a young Indian who comes to New York in search of his fortune and stumbles into the sex industry, first as a hopeless stud in a porno flick, then as a modish spiritual advisor, offering hope to the ungratified loins of high society. All this makes for a promising culture clash, but somehow the movie contrives to miss every target in sight, and ends up in an even denser cloud of unknowing than its discomfited hero. The Indian characters are coarsened and patronized, while the credulity of the sage's clients-a subject worth mocking-is merely pecked at with fainthearted gags. Redemption takes the form of Heather Graham, who plainly enjoys her stint as a bondage goddess, and of Marisa Tomei, whose timing is pointed enough to extract something, at least, from the role of a randy dope. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fluffy and funny, June 23, 2004

By 

wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Guru (DVD)

I admit, I get hooked easily. This time, it was the opening scene, a dance class full of women in beautiful saris. The dance was the Macarena, and I almost fell off my chair laughing.

After that, the movie gets off to a slow start, with Our Hero (Ram) moving to America, the land of opportunity. The opportunities aren't quite the ones he expected, or even really wanted. The first was thrust upon him when a faker of a fakir falls down drunk just before a performance. The second happens when he fails to get up for another kind of performance.

Heather Graham does a great job as a warm-hearted woman of debatable morals. Marisa Tomei also does a great job as a warm-hearted woman of debatable judgement. No spoilers, but everyone ends up happy.

It's sweet, silly amusement. It takes a while to get going, but it's worth the wait.

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Salaam Bombay!..., February 19, 2003

By 

Mark Twain "Sam" - See all my reviews

Seems Bollywood is making its way to Hollywood, and I'm loving every minute of it. From the marvelous crowd-pleaser MONSOON WEDDING to the cheerfully cute LAGAAN, to the upcoming international hit BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM, Indian films are making their way to America, and it's about time (and no, I'm not Indian). In the midst of it all came THE GURU, a wonderful romantic comedy that incorporates sex with Bollywood musicals. Why Universal decided to limit THE GURU's wide release just days before its theatrical premiere is beyond me. Maybe moving the release date to a less competitive weekend would have been a better answer (The Recruit, Biker Boys, and Final Destination 2 all started on Jan. 31st, 2003). THE GURU is a sweet, good-natured comedy with great performances by the entire cast, some hilarious comedic moments, and cute send-up's of BOLLYWOOD. The plot is outrageous, the situations are implausible, but the movie is plain FUN. It's a superb indie-like studio picture that benefits from bright dialogue and the impressive cast. The one thing I would have liked is to have seen more musical moments amidst the craziness...there was definitely potential for them. All in all, THE GURU is a great romantic comedy. Much lighter in tone than MONSOON WEDDING and much more fun (and shorter) than LAGAAN. Although dealing with porno and sex, it is all done tastefully and not as explicitly as it could have been. A wonderful trip to the movies it was!...

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spectacular and uplifting!!!!, January 23, 2003

By 

Christopher B. Powell (Palm Springs, CA United States) - See all my reviews

I saw the movie the Guru twice while it was at the Film Festival here in Palm Springs, and I absolutely love the movie. It's a great uplifting film. It is hilariously funny throughout the movie. It's a very happy film with a message about finding ones path in life. The theatre gave it a standing ovation, everyone I went with loved the movie as well. I recommend it to all because I plan on buying this as soon as it comes out on DVD myself. And the music rocks!!!