Guruphiliac: Whiny Hindus To Get <i>Love Guru</i> Preview



Friday, March 21, 2008

Whiny Hindus To Get Love Guru Preview

File under: The Siddhi of PR

Paramount Pictures is apparently seeking to appease a whiny Hindu organization (in Reno, Nevada, of all places) and has agreed to screen the The Love Guru, Mike Myers' upcoming summer blockbuster:
Prominent Indo-American leader Rajan Zed, who spearheaded this issue, says that guru is a highly revered spiritual teacher, master and preceptor in Hinduism who helps remove the ignorance of the seeker.
Actually, we quite agree with this. That's what a guru should be. But then, there are a lot of should bes that aren't in the world, including the quaint little picture presented above. We're not saying there aren't gurus like this. In truth, there are plenty of them. But most big-time gurus, the type we address here, are not in this class. At best, they are misguided and naive. They certainly all have a public face and a private face. It is the darkness of the private face that determines how nasty they are, although a sincere yet naive guru can do a lot of damage as well.

We doubt Paramount will actually change the film for these cry-babies. They may cut a few seconds here and there, but this movie is probably substantially complete, and we doubt Myers or the studio will fold over the issues these people are likely to raise.

And who knows? It might be that Paramount wants to make these folks upset. After all, they've already given the film a good deal of pre-publicity. Movie companies pay millions for that sort of thing, and here these uppity folks are all set to keep handing it to them for free.

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6 Comments:

At 3/22/2008 11:18 AM, Blogger Zubin said...

Point 1: I'm always amused by groups which claim to speak for all peoples of their religion, ethnicity, sex or hairstyle. They can't see how narrow and dead such a concept is.

Point 2: The trailer for The Love Guru looks hilarious! And it has Verne Troyer!

 
At 3/22/2008 12:24 PM, Blogger stuartresnick said...

Rajan Zed says...
guru is a highly revered spiritual teacher, master and preceptor in Hinduism who helps remove the ignorance of the seeker.

I believe that Rajan is implying that once a person or group decides to declare someone a "guru," then that guru shouldn't be questioned. Thus, he's speaking precisely to the core issue: will I always and everywhere be ready to perceive, question, and wonder for myself? Or should I mindlessly accept supposed "wisdom" coming from an authority?

Jody said...
That's what a guru should be. But then, there are a lot of should bes that aren't in the world

How do we distinguish someone who offers helpful knowledge, from the "should-bes"? I see two choices. Either we never stop examining and questioning for ourselves... or we follow an authority based on how famous and popular and superficially pleasing they are.

We can try both ways (I sure have!) and then decide which one we like.

Stuart
http://stuart-randomthoughts.blogspot.com/

 
At 3/22/2008 9:03 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Groovy baby, yeah! I wonder if The Love Guru is going to be "shagging someone rotten" in this flick! Mike Myers is a phenomenal comedian and we have free speech in this country, supposedly.....so right on Mike. I'm thinking for myself for sure on this one Stuart and I can't wait to see this flick.

 
At 3/24/2008 10:53 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You can check out Guru Pitka's (Mike Myers) mini sutra's on the Love Guru Youtube channel. They are pretty funny...

 
At 3/29/2008 4:45 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Why did you take out the 'Bizarro' line? I thought that was the funniest part.

 
At 3/29/2008 7:15 PM, Blogger guruphiliac said...

Why did you take out the 'Bizarro' line?

Upon a second reading while in a different headspace, it just sounded cheesy and reaching to me, like I was trying way too hard. But I'm glad you found it funny.

 

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