'It's crude, it’s rude, and it’s lewd' but not necessarily offensive (From Asian Image)

'It's crude, it’s rude, and it’s lewd' but not necessarily offensive

2:03pm Wednesday 23rd July 2008

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A leading Hundu group says that although the Love Guru movie is full of crude humour that often make fun of some Hindu practices, it is 'not necessarily offensive'.

The Hindu Forum of Britain was invited to a private viewing of the controversial movie Love Guru' by Paramount.

Love Guru is about an American who grows up in an Indian ashram. He becomes Guru Pitka and travels to America to save an ice-hockey team from defeat.

Their star player cannot play on the rink after his wife leaves him. The Guru's ambition is to become as famous as Deepak Chopra.

He believes that if he brings the hockey player and his wife together and helps the hockey team win a tournament, he could appear on the Oprah Winfrey show and become as famous as Deepak Chopra.

The movie is perhaps an ant-thesis of everything that a Guru should really stand for. Guru Pitka instigates a bar fight, repeatedly narrates jokes with sexual themes, performs contortions that mock yogic poses, wears female jewellery, routinely performs Bollywood duos and generally appears as a childish and immature buffoon.

"It's crude, it's rude, and it's lewd. And it's about a crude, lewd and rude dude," commented Ramesh Kallidai, secretary general of the Hindu Forum of Britain, after seeing the preview of the movie. "But is the Love Guru' really all that offensive? Well, that depends on how sensitive and touchy-feely you are. Some American Hindus certainly seem to think it violates there faith. I found the movie full of cheap humour and double-edged vulgarity, but nothing to beat ourselves about.

"The movie certainly had some jokes on Hinduism I did not enjoy - but surely Hindus must learn to laugh at themselves, once in a while."

The Hindu Forum of Britain feels that the Love Guru is a slapstick comedy that attempts unsuccessfully to entertain through profanity and cheap humour.

"The worldwide protests will only succeed in making the film more prominent than it really deserves. But after all the tom-foolery, the movie does conclude with a resounding message - that material comforts or fame are not the only things that matter," said Ramesh Kallidai.

"I feel that there may be more important things for the world-wide Hindu community to protest about rather than the Love Guru. Has anyone not heard of human rights abuse against minority faith communities in Bangladesh? Perhaps saving a few lives there might deserve more attention than a cheap comedy that only succeeds in raising a few undeserved laughs."

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