Hindus to Mike Myers: "Oh, behave!"

Woke up this a.m. to find an interesting e-mail headlined: "Resentment against movie The Love Guru spreading rapidly."

It appears that Mike Myers' portrayal of a Hindu guru in a comedy opening June 20 is ruffling the robes of that faith's believers, and supporters from other religions. Here's the text, minus one thick paragraph listing 11 more multi-denominational protesters (a priest, a rabbi and a civil rights activist included, and that's no joke):

Censure of the upcoming Hollywood movie The Love Guru over the signals of its denigrating Hindu traditions is broadening quickly among both Hindu and non-Hindu circles.

Supporting the movement spearheaded by prominent Hindu and Indo-American leader Rajan Zed, various Hindu and non-Hindu organizations and leaders have been coming out expressing concern about the possibility of the film hurting the sentiments of Hindus worldwide and urging filmmakers to be more responsible when handling faith related subjects. Zed has been saying that from the information available about the movie, it appears to be lampooning Hinduism and Hindus and using Hindu terms frivolously.

Swami Pooja Saraswati, a well respected spiritual leader, in a declaration, said, “I watched the trailer for the movie Love Guru and was shocked that any respectable movie producer would so blatantly ridicule a great world religion, a culture, spiritual path and sincere way of life, portraying it as farce.”

“Hopefully, Paramount Pictures would agree to make changes suggested by Rajan Zed and other Hindu leaders, during the prescreening of this insulting film before millions of Hindus, yogis and people of high spiritual consciousness around the world feel hurt, offended and outraged,” she added.

Reverend John J. Auer, Pastor of First United Methodist Church in Reno, in a statement, said, “…with reference to the film The Love Guru, I respectfully request the creators and producers and their investors to grant the Hindu community a respectful way to respond and make any suggested amendments to the film…”

“Neither Mr. Zed nor I has any interest in censorship…However, it is crucial that every faith tradition be given the chance to be heard in response to any portrayal in popular culture of elements of that tradition that might be easily misrepresented and/or misunderstood,” Rev. Auer added.

Hindu Jana Jagruti Samiti and Sanatan Sanstha, through their spokesperson Bhavna Shinde, in a release today, demanded removal of the trailer and making changes to the movie The Love Guru, so that it will not hurt the feelings of the many spiritual seekers and the religious sentiments of devout Hindus worldwide.

Shinde further said that if the trailer is an indicator of the content of the movie, then we feel that this movie is not only likely to hurt sentiments of seekers from various paths of spiritual practice, but will also contribute to the misunderstanding about the sacred concept of the ‘Guru’. We are registering this protest, in support of Rajan Zed’s protest against the denigration indicated in the movie The Love Guru, she added.

Alison Pratte, a yoga leader, has stated, “I was surprised to find myself offended after watching the trailer The Love Guru…the depiction of the main character in the movie seems more than a harmless spoof. It is loaded with an ignorant stereotype of a culture and religion that is already misunderstood and stigmatized…This movie The Love Guru will only cause more ignorance and bring shame to a beautiful tradition that has existed for thousands of years.”

Andrea Forman, Founder of Shanti Shanti, only Sanskrit rock band in the world, in a statement, said, “…it should be noted that the portrayal of a Guru depicted in this movie, is entertaining, but not an accurate portrayal of the austere and revered spiritual guides that are so dear to the practice and continuation of Hindu and Buddhist teachings.”

Paramount Pictures, through its Senior Vice President National Publicity, Jessica Rovins, has earlier stated, “It is our full intention to screen the film for Rajan Zed and other Hindu leaders in the U.S. once we have a finished print."

It may be recalled here that advance screenings of Mel Gibson’s 2004 movie The Passion of the Christ were held for clergy and others.

The Love Guru; a comedy starring Mike Myers (of Austin Powers fame, who is also the co-writer and co-producer), Jessica Alba, Justin Timberlake, Ben Kingsley; and directed by Marco Schnabel; is set to release on June 20 next. In it Myers, an American, raised in an ashram in India, moves back to US as Guru Pitka to seek fame and fortune in the world of self-help and spirituality.

Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world, has about one billion followers. Moksha (liberation) is the ultimate goal of Hinduism.

Paramount Pictures Corporation is a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment.

Comments

[Simone]

Your blog entry was very informative. Thanks for your effort. We have started a new site called FaithTube

(http://faithtu.be). It contains religious videos from all around the internet. If you could visit us then it would be great.

Thanks.
Simone.

[Marissa]

ohmmmm "mariska hargitay-mariska hargitay"

[Robert Burns]

I'm glad this came up - as a proud Scottish man, I was terribly offended by this so-called Canadian's take on the Scottish, we are not all fat bastards and we don't eat babies, either. Shame, Michael Myers, shame!!

[arish sahani]

will producers and finacers dare to make fun movie on pope.

[TC]

Tom your cracking me up! thanks for the laugh, your SO right!

[Tom]

Hey, let's make a movie about evangelical Christian preachers as ignoramuses and put it out there as a comedy - then, let's watch the bible thumpers come out and piss and moan...

Oh, wait, that's already being done on the evening news. Sorry.

[TC]

I agree with Bill...plus christians are a LOT more fun to make fun of!

[TC]

LOL "Christ Jesus"... you christians are hysterical.

[VOR]

What did Ghandi do when faced with western irreverence, predudice and ignorance ? Today's Hindu spiritual leaders need to ask themselves this question. Forgiveness knows no insult and asks for no recompense. Dont pay your enemy, or fight them on their ground, pray for them and boycott their products, until they have a change of heart. That was Ghandi's mantra.... It's still the best way to handle the irreverant ways of this world. Ironically, Christ Jesus taught the same things, hundreds of years before Ghandi came to his own conclusions. Too bad so many in this world havent been paying attention, guess they are too busy, going to the movies and paying Hollywood to be entertained.

[Bill]

Thank God for Christians and fat people...not my target of choice but they're still game and they tend to flock together.

[TC]

I mean really you can't say "boo" without hurting someone's feeling or insulting their precious sensibilities there days. So stupid.. get OVER it!

[Sarat]

I mean, I agree that it's just a movie, but some of you that post a comment are pretty ignorant. To think that indians only run quickie marts, it's funny... how bout running jaguar/land rover, how bout staffing every hospital, how bout being the CEO of pepsi. movies are offensive, that's cool, i laugh, but you guys need to check yourself before making dumb comments.

[TC]

Wow talk about no sense of humor! If you can't laugh at yourself... They need to just get over it!

[James Bayly]

This is America land of the free. Don't like leave and show a little respect in the process.

[jan]

The only thing that would hurt my sentiments towards Hindus is if they can't take a joke. Good grief.

[millie b]

cant these different ethnic/religious groups just put a sock in it. Why are they so sensitive. For Gosh sake its only a movie. Cutter is correct, just manage your Quikie Marts or take a nap on a bed of nails.

[sb]

Being "PC" is really getting out of hand. Its a comedy for goodness sake. If you think about it almost every movie made could be offensive to someone somwhere...

[Dallas]

Are you people serious, get over it, give me a break, and welcome to the party. Seriously, just don't go see it if you don't like it. This is so stupid.

signed,

Christianity (Too many offensive movies to list)

[cutter]

May be they should worry about running their quikie marts and motels. I see nothing wrong in comedy. Let them get over it.