Mike Myers just got a verbal smackdown from a Hindu leader in the United States.
The actor and Hindu leader Rajan Zed have been involved in a war of words ever since Zed kicked off a public rally urging moviegoers to boycott Myers’ latest comedy, "The Love Guru."
The movie follows Myers’ character—an oddball spiritual guru named Guru Pitka —as he tries to make a love connection between an unlikely couple.
While some see the movie’s premise as hilarious, Zed feels Myers’ portrayal mocks his religion and is offensive to all Hindus.
"It appears the film lampoons Hinduism and Hindus and uses Hindu terms frivolously," Zed told news reporters last week.
The "Shrek" star didn’t take Zed’s hit lightly and shot back, "This guy has not seen the film. What he will find is that this is a mythical and completely made up system of teachings in the tradition of The Force in Star Wars and Fredonia in the Marx Brothers movies."
The comedic actor added: "The system of teachings in the film are completely made up, and therefore it's a non-controversial movie."
According to Zed, he wanted to see the film, but claims that promises made to him by studio bosses at Paramount Pictures to pre-screen the movie failed to materialize. Still, that’s not stopping Zed from making vigorous attempts to get people to boycott “The Love Guru.” The real-life spiritual leader says everything from the title of the film to tagline about karma (the film’s tagline is: “His Karma is huge,”) and jokes about yoga in the film are "repugnant" to Hindus.
According to Zed, "A guru is a highly revered spiritual teacher/master in Hinduism who helps remove the ignorance of the seeker and who leads one from darkness to light. The antics of Mike Myers' Guru Pitka in The Love Guru are a mockery of the esteemed institution of guru."
For the record the movie’s official website describes Myers’ character as a "Guru/life guide/bikini inspector."
Still, Zed doesn’t find anything humorous about the film’s title or content.
"Hinduism is the oldest and third largest religion of the world... and it should not be taken lightly,” Zed maintains adding, "Cinema is a powerful medium and it can create stereotypes in the minds of some audiences."
Is “The Love Guru” as offensive as Zed makes it out to be?
You can judge for yourself—the movie opened on June 20th and can be seen in theaters across the country.
Lucia Kim
Families Pop Culture Blog
**Read more articles by Lucia Kim**
Comments