USA:It seems that the protesting Hindus will not be able to appeal against the “NC16” rating given by Singapore Board of Film Censors to the Hollywood movie “The Love Guru”, which they wanted to be raised.
It is learnt that according to the Singapore Films Act, only the owner of the film, which is the film exhibitor or distributor, can appeal against the rating issued by Singapore Board of Film Censors.
Acclaimed Hindu leader Rajan Zed has said that other affected parties by the movie, in this case Hindus, should also have same rights of appeal against rating decisions as the owner, if they are not satisfied with the classification.
Criticizing Singapore Media Development Authority statement (about the movie) that “It does not denigrate any religion”, Zed stressed that it clearly lampoons Hinduism and Hindu concepts and uses Hindu terms frivolously.
The antics of Guru Pitka of “The Love Guru” are a mockery of the esteemed institution of guru, who is a highly revered spiritual teacher/master/preceptor in Hinduism and who helps remove the ignorance of the seeker and who leads one from darkness to light. The guru-sishya (teacher-disciple) relationship lies at the heart of traditional Hinduism. Guru is often allied with the divine. Guru bestows spiritual knowledge totally free from selfish objectives, Zed argues.
On the other hand, guru in “The Love Guru” instigates a bar fight, repeatedly narrates penis jokes, mocks yoga (one of the six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy), wears female jewelry, mocks the concept of third eye, makes disciple drink tea passed through his nose, orders alligator soup, induces elephant copulation in front of the crowd, introduces himself as “His Holiness”, lives in a lavish ashram staffed with scantily clad maids, and whose goal in life seems to appear on Oprah Winfrey show, Zed says.
When did Hindu gurus become available “for hire”? When and who started rating them? When did shishyas (disciples) started joining ashram for the sole purpose to make girls like them? Which Hindu ashram organizes fights of disciples with mops soaked in guru’s urine? Which guru urinates in the midst of disciples? Rajan Zed asks.
This is pure and blatant ridiculing and presenter of the movie Paramount Pictures and its parent Viacom should immediately issue a general public apology, Zed says. Besides Hindus, even a prominent Jewish Rabbi, Elizabeth W. Beyer of Nevada (USA), has called for boycott of “The Love Guru” because it “…lampoons Hinduism, mocks Ashram life and Hindu philosophy…”
“The Love Guru” (88 minutes), a comedy starring Mike Myers (of Austin Powers fame), opened June 20 in USA and Canada and is reportedly scheduled to be released in Singapore on September four.