The Guru

Culture clash, circa 1969 - rueful, nostalgic, thoughtful - 4 & 1/2 stars
Merchant-Ivory films would later explore the clash of Western & Eastern cultures in more weighty terms; but in the early to mid-1960s, their films had a looser, more comic style, a product of the times that really captured the tone of those times. Inspired by the stories of real-life musicians (such as George Harrison) who went to India in search of both musical & spiritual teaching, here we follow pop star Tom Pickle (Michael York) as he goes to study the sitar with master musician Ustal Zafar Khan (Uptal Dutt). The dedicated guru soon discovers that having Pickle as his guest & student has landed him in a pickle as well, with star-smitten hippie girls showing up to disrupt what should have been a serious apprenticeship. Or is Pickle really all that serious in the long run? One hippie girl in particular, Jenny (the always delightful & irresistible Rita Tushingham), may well be more than a mere distraction. Meanwhile, the guru's own family & household also suffer the effects of...

Interesting Movie
This was a interesting movie-The ficrtional plot is somewhat similar to what happened when, in 1966, George Harrison came to India to study with Ravi Shankar. Of course, there are some things that did not happen in real life-they only happened to the character in the movie (who was played by Michael York).



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