The Guru (1969)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

James Ivory

Writers:

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (story) and
James Ivory (screenplay)

Release Date:

10 February 1969 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Britain's top pop artiste, Tom Pickle, travels to Bombay, India, circa 1960s to learn to play the sitar...

Plot Keywords:

Independent Film

Cast

Rita Tushingham	...	Jenny
Michael York	...	Tom Pickle
Utpal Dutt	...	Ustal Zafar Khan
Madhur Jaffrey	...	Begum Sahiba
Barry Foster	...	Chris
Aparna Sen	...	Ghazala
Zohra Sehgal	...	Mastani (as Zohra Segal)
Saeed Jaffrey	...	Murad
Nana Palsikar	...	The Guru's Guru
Nadira	...	Courtesan
Leela Naidu	...	Girl at the Party
Usha Katrah	...	Lady Reporter
Fred Ohringer	...	Howard
Nargis Cowalsji	...	Society Hostess
Marcus Murch	...	Snide Guest

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

USA | India

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:G

Filming Locations:

Benares, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

Company:

Twentieth Century Fox

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Darjeeling Limited (2007)

Soundtrack:

Tom's Boat Song

Early, meandering Merchant-Ivory

Utpal Dutt is very good as a master sitar player in India who doesn't seem to get much respect or adoration from his own people, but soon finds himself saddled with two British students: a wide-eyed, worshipful young girl interested in musical and spiritual enlightenment, and a carefree pop superstar who doesn't care if he gets enlightened or not. Lots of incredible sitar playing (notice how many different pronunciations of 'sitar' there are!) and mod '60's fashions, but a meandering story that makes all its points within the first half-hour. Dutt is both compelled and repulsed by the pop star's decadent world, and their like-hate relationship becomes a spiritual tug of wills. Michael York, sporting a thick crop of cinnamon-colored hair and talking with a Limey accent, plays the visiting celebrity with a snide kind of casual indifference, which is perfectly right for the character, but it does nothing for the audience and he elicits little interest; Rita Tushingham (reunited with York from 1967's "Smashing Time") overworks her perky nature and large, round eyes, yet her character hasn't been given many dimensions beyond what we are made to quickly sense (that her aimlessness led her to India and what she really needs is a man in her bed). As directed by James Ivory and produced by Ismail Merchant--who would become long-time partners and filmmakers--"The Guru" isn't bad; the locations are great and there are intermittent bits of satire that are certainly fashionable (for 1969, especially), yet ultimately there is too much ambiance and not enough plot. ** from ****