Mike Myers' latest film, the "Love Guru" is utterly baffling. Aside from the humor which seems to follow the formula of 'if this scene is dragging add a fart noise' there is the odd choice of vehicle for the main character. Myers plays an American abandoned in India who grows up studying to become a guru. However, outside of a beard, his clothes, and pet elephant, there is nothing vaguely Indian or guru-like about Myers. One is left to wonder what the point of dressing the part of an Indian guru is if Myers isn't going to make fun of anything Indian. Why offend an entire community for absolutely no reason?
Watch ten seconds of "Love Guru" and it's clearly so stupid it's hard to find it racist. What's more offensive is the complete and total ignorance of Indian culture and religion that is expressed, and Myers' willingness to make up anything he likes instead of using either fact or stereotype. For example in one scene, gurus in training play an incredibly stupid game called "Stink Mop." In this game, would be gurus try to smack one another in the face with mops coated in guru Tugginmypuddha's urine. It's not only unfunny, it has zero to do with anything from any culture, except perhaps, American frat boy culture. I'm sure somewhere a frathouse makes the incoming pledges play "Stink Mop" for a hazing, or does now that the movie has given them some ideas.
The strangest thing about Myers' "Love Guru" movie is that some of the best scenes are actually the few where he genuinely references Indian culture in some way. It's funny and adorable to see him and a small band playing American classic rock tunes using Indian musical instruments such as the sitar. I'm sure someone could be offended by this crossing of cultures, but the way it's presented is actually very cute. The spoofed Bollywood movie musical numbers are fun too. These things show a glimmer of what the movie could have been had Myers played more with these cross-cultural elements instead of insisting on a parade of bad fart jokes.
It's a shame this movie had to come out directly after "Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay." While the Harold and Kumar film is not really about Indian culture, and runs like a typical stoner comedy, one of the unique elements of it is that the film includes an American born Indian as a main character. The character, Kumar, does not display any typical Indian stereotypes we usually see such as being inept with women, or having an accent, or working for tech support. Any stereotypes that do apply to Kumar are actually strengths in the film. For example Kumar has the ability to be a gifted doctor, and while he does have the Indian stereotype of being great at math, it is an asset he uses to successfully hit on the woman of his dreams.
"Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay" is a film that is in some ways a step forward in how Indians (American born or otherwise) are represented on screen in American films. I'm not going to rush to say it's an amazing step forward – I don't know how excited anyone is going to get over the idea that we can have an American born Indian stoner character (oh hooray!) -- but at least it's not the usual stereotype. In any case, we have this movie taking a step outside the box with a complete, fully developed American born Indian character, and then Myers comes along and puts us a few steps backwards with his film "Love Guru."
The only real plus for Myers is that he does not really use many stereotypes outside of the costuming, some of the background settings, and of course, the pet elephant. You can't really watch "Love Guru" and get upset that he's reinforcing a stereotype of any sort. It's just annoying to see someone assume he can borrow some stereotypical visual elements of a culture then ignore the significance of everything borrowed and do whatever he wants with it. What's even WORSE is to see Myers borrow from a culture and then use so little of what he borrowed.
It's as though Myers took just enough from Indian culture to be offensive, but not enough to display any real understanding or even a stereotypical understanding of it. It's also depressing. Remembering back a bit, Myers really is a comedic genius. I loved Wayne's World. I loved the Austin Powers character, Dr. Evil, and Shrek. But then he brings us this. It's a real shame, and I recommend staying away from the movie all together. The only bright spots are the musical numbers that actually do reference Indian culture (though it is a bit stereotypical) and the news casters played by Stephen Colbert and Jim Gaffigan. Colbert and Gaffigan were so funny they should have their own film. However, it's not worth the price of the movie ticket to see these two in action. Just wait for someone to post clips of them on youtube.
