'Love Guru' isn't offensive: Deepak Chopra

Lalit K Jha

Sunday, June 22, 2008: (New York):

As Mike Mayer's fun-thrilled Love Guru hit more than 3,000 theaters across the United States Friday, amidst protest by a Hindu priest here that it is offensive to his religion, New Age guru, Deepak Chopra, said Saturday that there is nothing in this movie to substantiate such a wild allegation.

"It is a fun-thrilled movie for American audience," Chopra told NDTV.Com in New York where he had come to attend a fund raiser for Myanmar cyclone victims.

Deepak Chopra, who himself appeared briefly in the movie, which has been running houseful in many theaters across the US, said there is nothing objectionable in Love Guru, which could be a cause of protest for the Indian-American community or the Hindus in the US.

Chopra said he agreed to act in the film, though briefly, only after going through the entire script thoroughly and he did not find anything objectionable for the Hindus.

"I do not subscribe to his views," Chopra said referring to the one-man protest coming from a Nevada-based Hindu priest, Razan Zed, whose claim to the fame so far has been chanting ancient Vedic mantras and Sanskrit slokas in US Senate and various US State Assemblies in the past one year.

Zed, who for the past several months had launched a relentless campaign against Love Guru a Paramount Production told NDTV.Com after watching it: "The movie is worse that the trailer." His initial opposition was based on the trailer.

He has now issued an appeal to the Indian American community to boycott the movie, which he alleges downgrades the Hindu religion among mainstream Americans by using specific Hindu words like yoga, guru and karma with double meaning. "There are lot of things, which are objectionable. It lampoons Hinduism and Hindu concepts and uses Hindu terms frivolously," Zed said.

But not many people, including the Indian Americans are taking Zed's advice seriously. In fact, it is just the opposite for quite a number of Indian Americans to go and watch and see personally.

"I did not find anything which I could find objectionable. In fact, I enjoyed every part of it. I laughed a lot," said Kavita Singh, a software executive, after watching the movie in Manhattan Saturday evening. Singh, like many others acknowledged that she went to see the movie after reading news reports that a Hindu priest has called for its boycott.

"The more the opposition, the more is the publicity of the movie," said Deepak Chopra. So did observe the two main actors of the film.

"It (opposition) is better for me and the movie," actor Romany Malco told NDTV.Com. Trinidadian-Malco, who has several Hindu friends and has spent his childhood in the company of Hindu priests, said the movie is for fun and entertainment.

"I feel sorry, if it hurts any one's sentiments. But this does not seem to be offensive to anyone," actress young actress Meagan Good, who is recognized for her acclaimed performance in the moody family drama "Eve's Bayou".

Mike Mayers' who spent years of research in the run up to the movie, told South Asian media a day before its release said he did not believe there is any opposition to it. "It is only one individual. That too without even seeing the movie," Mayer's said and was confident that after watching the movie, Hindus would not subscribe to Zed's view.

While Zed, has renewed his call of boycott, he has failed to support from any prominent Hindu organizations in the United States so far. "The Love Guru" is much more denigrating than they earlier perceived from the information gathered from trailers, website and other sources" Zed said.

Members of the Hindu American Foundation a Washington-based Hindu rights group which watched the movie found it vulgar and crude. However very few of the Hindus viewing the film found it overtly anti-Hindu or mean-spirited, said Aseem Shukla from the Foundation. No Hindu or Sanskrit terms beyond guru or ashram are ever used, he said.

North America chapter of International Society for Krishna Consciousness or Iskcon in a statement also did not find anything objectionable from Hindu perspective. "We find it to be a typical satire that does not intend to hurt religious sentiments," ISKCON, North America said in a statement.

However, Hindu American Foundation has a word of advice for Paramount. Given the costumes and overall concept of the film, it would have been better if a disclaimer was put at the beginning of the film that characters and events are not based on Hindu spiritual masters, Shukla said.