''The Guru'' is a 2002

sex comedy Sex comedy, erotic comedy or more broadly sexual comedy is a genre in which comedy is motivated by sexual situations and love affairs. Although "sex comedy" is primarily a description of dramatic forms such as theatre and film, literary works such ...

film written by Tracey Jackson and directed by

Daisy von Scherler Mayer Daisy von Scherler Mayer, sometimes credited as Daisy Mayer (born September 14, 1966), is an American film and television director. Life and career Mayer is the daughter of actress Sasha von Scherler (1934–2000) and Paul Avila Mayer (1928– ...

. The film centers on a dance teacher who comes to the United States from India to pursue a normal career but incidentally stumbles into a brief but high-profile career as a sex guru, a career based on a philosophy he learns from a

pornographic actress A pornographic film actor or actress, pornographic performer, adult entertainer, or porn star is a person who performs sex acts in video that is usually characterized as a pornographic movie. Such videos tend to be made in a number of dis ...

. The film stars Jimi Mistry as the eponymous character,

Heather Graham Heather Joan Graham (born January 29, 1970) is an American actress. After appearing in television commercials, her first starring role in a feature film came with the teen comedy '' License to Drive'' (1988), followed by the critically acclaime ...

as the actress he learns from, and

Marisa Tomei Marisa Tomei ( , ; born December 4, 1964) is an American actress. She came to prominence as a cast member on '' The Cosby Show'' spin-off '' A Different World'' in 1987. After having minor roles in a few films, she came to international attentio ...

, who helps him reach his guru status among her

socialite A socialite is a person from a wealthy and (possibly) aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having tradit ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

friends. The film was a commercial success, grossing $24 million in worldwide box office against its budget of $11 million.

Plot

Ramu Gupta ( Jimi Mistry), a dance teacher, leaves his native city

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

, to seek his fortune in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. He is lured by the exaggerations of his cousin, Vijay, who has already moved to NYC. Seeking work as an actor, the naïve Ramu unknowingly lands a role in a

pornographic film Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, sex films, and 18+ films are films that present sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse and satisfy the viewer. Pornographic films present sexual fantasies and usually include erotic ...

. That evening he accompanies Vijay and his roommates on a

catering Catering is the business of providing food service at a remote site or a site such as a hotel, hospital, pub, aircraft, cruise ship, park, festival, filming location or film studio. History of catering The earliest account of major servi ...

job at a society birthday party. When the Indian

swami Swami ( ; sometimes abbreviated sw.) in Hinduism is an honorific title given to a male or female ascetic who has chosen the path of renunciation (''sanyāsa''), or has been initiated into a religious monastic order of Vaishnavas. It is used eit ...

hired to address the party falls into drunken oblivion, Ramu takes his place. Lacking a real philosophy, he improvises by repeating advice he had been given by Sharonna (

), an adult film actress he met earlier. Lexi (

), the birthday girl, is so impressed that she promotes him as a

New Age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consi ...

sex guru to her friends. Ramu hires Sharonna, ostensibly for advice on how to be an actor in adult films, though what he really wants is more ideas he could use in his new role as the guru of sex. A personal relationship develops between them, though Sharonna is engaged to a firefighter who thinks she's a substitute school teacher. Ramu becomes an overnight celebrity, widely known as a spiritual leader - the Guru of Sex. The fame comes at a price, however, and he must choose between his newfound fame and his feelings for Sharonna. Ramu has a national television appearance where he admits to being a fraud, but passes the torch to Lexi, then hurries across town to stop Sharonna's wedding. At the door to the church Ramu coincides with her fiancé's secret gay lover Randy (

Bobby Cannavale Roberto Michael Cannavale (; born May 3, 1970) is an American actor. He is best known for various television roles, including leading roles in '' Third Watch'', '' Vinyl'', and ''Mr. Robot'', as well as recurring roles in '' Will & Grace'', which ...

). They both object to the wedding, being in love with the bride and groom. The film ends with a Bollywood dance number.

Cast

* Jimi Mistry as Ramu Gupta *

as Sharonna *

as Alexandra "Lexi" Hamilton *

Dash Mihok Dashiell Raymond Mihok (; born May 24, 1974) is an American actor and director best known for playing Brendan "Bunchy" Donovan in the Showtime drama '' Ray Donovan''. Early life Mihok was born in New York City, the son of theater actors Andrea ...

as Rusty McGee, Sharonna's fiancé *

Michael McKean Michael John McKean (; born October 17, 1947) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, composer, singer, and musician known for various roles in film and television such as Lenny Kosnowski in ''Laverne & Shirley'', David St. Hubbins in ''T ...

as Dwain, a director of adult films *

Christine Baranski Christine Jane Baranski (born May 2, 1952) is an American actress. She is a 15-time Primetime Emmy Award nominee, winning once in 1995 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Maryann Thorpe in the sitcom ''Cybill'' ...

as Chantal Hamilton, Lexi's mother * Ronald Guttman as Edwin Hamilton, Lexi's father * Thomas McCarthy as Lars Hamilton, Lexi's brother *

Emil Marwa Emil Marwa (born 1974) is a British actor, known for his acting in films like '' Izzat'', '' East Is East'', and '' The Guru''. Early life His father is an Indian Kenyan Sikh and his mother is of Norwegian descent. Emil was brought up in Londo ...

as Vijay Rao, Ramu's cousin *

Ajay Naidu Ajay Kalahastri Naidu (born February 12, 1972) is an American actor best known for playing Samir in ''Office Space''. Naidu was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his performance in the film '' SubUrbia''. Ea ...

as Sanjiv, Vijay's roommate * Charles Singh as Amit, Vijay's roommate *

as Randy, Rusty's gay lover * Malachy McCourt as Father Flannigan *

Sanjeev Bhaskar Sanjeev Bhaskar (born 31 October 1963) is a British actor, comedian and television presenter. He is best known for his work in the BBC Two sketch comedy series '' Goodness Gracious Me'' and as the star of the sitcom ''The Kumars at No. 42''. H ...

as Chef *

Anita Gillette Anita Gillette ( Luebben; born August 16, 1936) is an American actress. She had numerous roles on Broadway, American television, and in feature films. She also made many appearances as a celebrity guest on television game shows. Early life Gil ...

as Mrs. McGee, Rusty's mother * Pat McNamara as Mr. McGee, Rusty's father * Sinia Jane as Mrs. Gupta, Rumu's mother * Anoop Puri as Mr. Gupta, Rumu's father *

Rizwan Manji Rizwan Manji (born October 17, 1974) is a Canadian actor. He is known best for his portrayals of Ray Butani on ''Schitt's Creek'', Tick Pickwick on '' The Magicians'', Rajiv Gidwani in the NBC Universal TV series '' Outsourced'', and Jamil in th ...

as Party Waiter * Damian Young as Hank, the camera man * Dwight Ewell as Peaches, Sharonna's friend * Alex Khan as Young Ramu Gupta * Sakina Jaffery as a young woman in Dance class

Production

''The Guru'' was filmed in 2001, mostly on location in

, though a few scenes were filmed in

.Production Notes for ''The Guru''
from contactmusic.com Locations in New York City included

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...

, Manhattan's Chinatown,

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...

, Hunts Point,

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, the

George Washington Bridge The George Washington Bridge is a double-decked suspension bridge spanning the Hudson River, connecting Fort Lee, New Jersey, with Manhattan in New York City. The bridge is named after George Washington, the first president of the United S ...

, and close to the World Trade Center (the shot was not removed after the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

). Ramu's Broadway debut was filmed at Reverend Ike's United Palace Theater, while the setting for the finale was Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

Music

The film features several

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" ...

-style song-and-dance numbers, including one where Ramu and Sharonna sing a version of ''Kya Mil Gaya'' from '' Sasural'' that morphs into a version of "

You're the One That I Want "You're the One That I Want" is a song performed by American actor and singer John Travolta and Anglo-Australian singer, songwriter and actress Olivia Newton-John for the 1978 film version of the musical '' Grease''. It was written and produc ...

" from '' Grease''. The song "

Every Kinda People "Every Kinda People" is a song originally performed by Robert Palmer on his 1978 album '' Double Fun''. It was released as the album's lead single in March 1978. The song was written by Andy Fraser. Original version The song reached No. 53 in ...

" by

Jo O'Meara Joanne Valda O'Meara (born 29 April 1979) is an English pop singer. She is best known for being a member of pop group S Club 7 between 1999 and 2003. Born and raised in Romford, she launched her career at age 16 working with Max Martin. O'Meara ...

S Club 7 S Club 7 were a British pop group from London, created by former Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller and consisting of members Bradley McIntosh, Hannah Spearritt, Jo O'Meara, Jon Lee, Paul Cattermole, Rachel Stevens and Tina Barrett. The gro ...

fame is used in the film's end credits, and also included is "One Way Or Another" by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, " Don't Say Goodbye" from

Paulina Rubio Paulina Susana Rubio Dosamantes (; born 17 June 1971) is a Mexican singer. Referred to as "Honorific nicknames in popular music, The Golden Girl" and "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Latin Pop", she first achieved recognition as ...

Border Girl ''Border Girl'' is the sixth studio album and first English-language album by Mexican recording singer Paulina Rubio. It was released on 18 June 2002 internationally by Universal Records and later launched in the Japan on August 21, 2002 by Umvd L ...

album. " Round Round" by

Sugababes Sugababes are a British girl group composed of Mutya Buena, Keisha Buchanan and Siobhán Donaghy. The lineup changed three times before returning to the original lineup in 2011. Formed in 1998 by All Saints manager Ron Tom, Sugababes releas ...

also features.

Release

''The Guru'' opened in wide release in United Kingdom, and it eventually grossed $10 million - a solid box office success in United Kingdom. In the United States, the film grossed a respectful $3 million in

limited theatrical release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

. Overall, the film grossed $24 million in worldwide box office against its budget of $11 million.''The Guru''
from The Numbers

Critical reception

On the movie review aggregator site

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, ''The Guru'' has a 57% rating, with 50 of 88 reviewers giving the film a "fresh" rating. The site's consensus reads, "A sweetly silly but wafer-thin romantic comedy." Based on 30 reviews, the film's

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

score is 47 ("mixed"). After viewing it at the

Edinburgh International Film Festival The Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) is a film festival that runs for two weeks in June each year. Established in 1947, it is the world's oldest continually running film festival. EIFF presents both UK and international films (all ti ...

, Derek Elley, reviewing it for ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', called it a "generally entertaining but rather old-fashioned

" whose "basic plot of a naive Indian stumbling through white U.S. society...shows little advance in attitudes and humor on Blake Edwards' 1968 comedy '' The Party''." A BBC review said it "stirs together Bollywood and Hollywood, satire and romance, to create an appealing

masala Masala, Massala or MASALA may refer to: Spice * Masala (spice), any of the many spice mixes used in South Asian cuisine ** Masala chai, a flavoured tea beverage ** Masala incense, Indian incense using a spice mix ** Masala dosa, an Indian dish Pl ...

dish of a movie." After its U.S. premiere,

Stephen Holden Stephen Holden (born July 18, 1941) is an American writer, poet, and music and film critic. Biography Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963. He worked as a photo editor, staff writer, and eventually be ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called it a "nervy conceptual hybrid" that "lurch sbetween a loudmouthed

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

and a crude social satire" and noted that "behind its

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...

-meets-

banner, ''The Guru''... is a grindingly conventional comedy that insists on tying up its subplots in pretty ribbons and bows."Review
a January 31, 2003 article from ''The New York Times''

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Guru, The 2002 films 2002 romantic comedy films Adult comedy films American romantic comedy films American sex comedy films British Indian films British romantic comedy films British sex comedy films 2000s English-language films English-language French films Films about pornography Films directed by Daisy von Scherler Mayer Films produced by Eric Fellner Films produced by Tim Bevan French films set in New York City Films shot in New York City French romantic comedy films French sex comedy films Indian-American films StudioCanal films Universal Pictures films Working Title Films films British films set in New York City 2000s American films 2000s British films 2000s French films