There are, it is said, only seven basic plots in all the world, and Shakespeare wrote the best possible versions of each of them 400 years ago. Still, movie theaters and TV channels have space to fill and so studios keep turning out product. The most basic plot of all is boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl and they live happily ever after. The Guru tries to bring a few twists to this old as the hills story and succeeds.
Jimi Mistry is Ramu, an Indian kid who grows up idolizing and idealizing movie musicals and actors, but is little more than a dance teacher who captivates his Macarena students. Shades of Cinema Paradiso but instead of becoming a projectionist, Ramu moves to New York to seek stardom. Mistaking an audition for a porn movie for a real one, he meets Sharonna (Heather Graham), his intended co-star. But, given the opportunity, he can’t perform in front of the crowd of set techs.
Through a series of accidents and mistaken identity Ramu picks up with rich, directionless Lexi (Marisa Tomei) as a guru of sex and Lexi, using her friendships and connections, builds him into a new flash on the New York scene. Meanwhile, Sharonna, engaged to a very strict Catholic firefighter, is giving Ramu lessons so (she thinks) he can make it in the porn world. In reality, he’s using these lessons as the source material for his guru sessions. And then everything collides, but I don’t want to give away the amusements of the last act.
This is a truly funny, witty movie. One of the aspects of much humor in recent years that bothers me is the meanness, the humor that comes at the expense of another. But The Guru is able to avoid this, though admittedly there are a few stereotypes (like Tomei’s rich bitch mother, played by Christine Baranski). The script is by Tracey Jackson (her first produced script) and the film is directed by Daisy von Scherler Mayer (the Parker Posey indie Party Girl and Jada Pinkett’s Woo) and these women combine to bring a terrific touch and sensitivity to their work.
Recommended
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