Hindus have urged Hollywood celebrity Mike Myers to withdraw “The Love Guru” movie from proposed exhibition in India out of respect for the upset Hindus, who have been protesting against its lampooning of Hinduism for about one year.
Acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, who spearheaded the protest movement against “The Love Guru” movie starting in March 2008, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that withdrawing the movie from India would also save Mike Myers from further humiliation as the film suffered blunt failure at the box office and then received “worst picture”, “worst actor”, and “worst screenplay” awards at Golden Raspberries.
Currently, according to reports, the film is lying with Central Board of Film Certification (of India) (CBFC) in Mumbai waiting for certification. Usually a movie receives certification in a week or two, but the reports suggest that “The Love Guru” is pending with CBSE for over a month. “The Love Guru” opened in USA and Canada on June 20 last with Hindus calling for its worldwide boycott.
CBFC is responsible for certifying films suitable for public exhibition in India, where the main character of the movie Guru Pitka was shown to be raised in an ashram.
According to Rajan Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, this movie appears to violate various CBFC “guidelines for certification”. He listed the apparently challenged CBFC guidelines in this movie as: ” such dual meaning words as obviously cater to baser instincts are not allowed”; “visuals or words contemptuous of racial, religious or other groups are not presented”; “human sensibilities are not offended by vulgarity, obscenity or depravity”.
Zed stresses that the Cinematograph Act lays down that a film has to be certified keeping “morality” in mind, besides other things. CBFC objectives of film certification are reportedly given as… “the medium of film remains responsible and sensitive to the values and standards of society”, “the medium of film provides clean and healthy entertainment”…
Rajan Zed argues that it is a pure and blatant ridiculing of Hinduism, the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about one billion adherents and a rich philosophical thought. No faith, larger or smaller, should be ridiculed at. Today it is Hinduism; tomorrow Hollywood might attempt to denigrate another religion/denomination.
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops declared “The Love Guru” “morally offensive” and slapped it with its highest rating “O”. “Preview Online”, which calls itself “informative tool for Christian parents and moviegoers”, gave it Morality Rating of –4 (Dangerous), which is lowest of five categories, highest being +4. “Christian Spotlight on Entertainment” gave it a Moral Rating of “Very Offensive”. Crosswalk, a Christ-centered corporation, wrote in the movie review, “…slew of seriously wince-inducing jabs at India’s culture (horrible, even when meant in fun)…” -Sampurn Media