'Love Guru' still awaiting certification for exhibition
Hindu leader Rajan Zed, who has spearheaded a protest movement against this movie, argues that it not only appears to violate various CBFC guidelines for certification, it is purely a 'blatant ridiculing' of Hinduism
CONTROVERSIAL HOLLYWOOD movie, “The Love Guru,” which was released in June last year but flopped world over, is reportedly still waiting for a clearance from India’s Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) where it was submitted on November 20 last.
According to reports, the film’s fate is still hanging on fire because of difference of opinion of CBFC committee members. It may be noted that the CBFC is responsible for certifying films suitable for public exhibition in India. In this particular movie its main character, Guru Pitka, was shown to be raised in an Ashram. Usually a movie receives its certification in a week or two.
Zed, who is the president of Universal Society of Hinduism, stresses that the Cinematograph Act lies down that a film has to be certified keeping “morality” in mind, besides other things. CBFC objectives of film certification are given as… “the medium of film remains responsible and sensitive to the values and standards of society and the medium of film provides clean and healthy entertainment….”
This Hindu leader, who has been spearheading the protest movement against “The Love Guru” since March 2008, argues that it is purely 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,” he felt.
The Hindus, who earlier called for its worldwide boycott of the film, have also urged its co-producer and leading actor Mike Myers to withdraw this controversial movie from proposed exhibition in India as a mark of respect for the Hindu sentiments in the country.
Zed argued 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 also received “worst picture”, “worst actor”, and “worst screenplay” awards at Golden Raspberries.
Meanwhile, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have declared “The Love Guru” as “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)…” Dwight N Hopkins, Professor of Theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School, has said about the movie, “It exhibits the bodacious, repulsive, iconoclastic, sophomoric, insulting, stereotyping, and illogicality…”
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