Cinema review (From Barry And District News)

Cinema review

The Guru (15)

WITH THE rising popularity of Bollywood films, the crossovers between East and Western cinema are now being made.

Recently, there have been big box office hits like Bend It Like Beckham and East is East, but now comes one of the biggest crossovers The Guru.

Ramu is a wannabe movie star, so he moves from India to New York in an attempt to make his dream come true. However, he finds an alternative route to fame as a sex guru, and taking the advice of porn star Sharonna. But as it all happens, the two become closer together.

What a great idea this was. By parodying Bollywood along with the Hollywood story formula, The Guru tries to be original by being unoriginal at the same time.

The result is pleasant enough, for the first 45 minutes, with enough jokes and stereotypes to raise plenty of smiles, but the second half goes over the top with the parodying.

The film has taken stabs at romantic cliches but fails to make anything funny. At the end of the day, you know all the outcomes so you feel cheated and want to go home early.

While all the dances and costumes are good enough, along with an entertaining first half, the second half lets it down completely.

It's a shame too because East is East star Jimi Mistry has put a lot of hard work into his role here and Heather Graham offers good support. But director Daisy von Scherler Mayer has gone over the top with the cliches.

If you are going to take a stab at cliches, you must put a twist into them or otherwise the audience will forget it is a parody and think they've seen it all before.

Why the makers have made so many mistakes is unknown. Perhaps they were trying too hard to create the "Bollywood feel" and to make a good tribute to Bollywood films. Well they did an excellent job at that, it's just the fact that they finished up with a lazy film.

Some may walk out thinking it was a work of art with its interesting use of colour and cinematography, but for me, once you know the formula, it's going to be hard to entertain.