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No love for 'Love Guru'
August 27, 2008

Rajan Zed, this one's for you.

For months, I've been getting emails from "rajanz", as I presume every journalist identifiable on the Internet also has, about boycotting Mike Myers comedy The Love Guru because it lampoons Hinduism. Rajan Zed is the president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, according to the email, and a Hindu chaplain in Reno, Nev., which explains his concern and his zeal to have this issue covered in the press. 

I, and everyone else on staff, have ignored these missives because they concerned the theatrical release, and, frankly, the stinky reviews for Guru seemed ample reason for people to stay away from the theater. (Though he did get some exposure on newsweek.washingtonpost.com's On Faith page near Guru's theatrical opening.)

Rajan caught my eye today, however, with his new email, in which he asks retailers including Wal-Mart, Amazon, Netflix, Blockbuster, Best Buy, Circuit City, Hollywood Video, Barnes & Noble, Tesco UK, National Entertainment Buying Group and the Entertainment Merchants Assn., among others, not to carry the DVD, due Sept. 16, because of its irreverance.

I still doubt Rajan's campaign will get far, but I applaud his tenacity and the intelligence with which he chose the retailers to target about the DVD. And now I've done my part to spread the concerns of the Hindu community known.

I don't think there ought to be much sleep lost over it, though, since the crummy reviews and lame box-office ($32 million for Mike Myers, Justin Timberlake and Jessica Alba?) are going to limit sales just fine on their own. Besides, distributor Paramount has bigger fish to fry...

Posted by Marcy Magiera on August 27, 2008 | Comments (0)