Film: The Guru

Cert: 15

By: PETER MAGILL

BURNING question - will former Eastender Jimi Mistry's latest foray on to the big screen have us shouting hurray for Bollywood?

Well on the evidence of Daisy von Scherler Mayer's The Guru, maybe the Californian city's crown isn't quite there for the taking just yet.

Jimi plays Ramu, a handsome dance teacher from Bombay who jets off to New York to seek fame and fortune as a movie legend.

Ambitions

With John Travolta in mind - and a naivety index running pretty high - he predictably falls far short of his starry-eyed ambitions.

He ends up plying his trade in dodgy top-shelf flicks and slumming it in Brooklyn with similar drop-outs.

But poor Ramu has problems 'performing' and has to take some pointers from the more-experienced Sharrona, aka Heather Graham.

Quite why the doe-eyed Graham

seems to end up with endless hooker-with-a-heart roles, a la Boogie Nights, is an enduring mystery.

Cutting to the chase, Ramu still fails dismally and is only rescued when he uses his new love-god status to con New York socialites, eager to discover Eastern mystical pleasures but unable to distinguish spiritual sweetmeats from a good madras.

Mistry's energy salvages much of the movie. But I'm afraid that like so many American attempts to get their heads around anything further away than the 50 states, he is fighting a losing battle.

If you're mad keen on cross

cultural comedies you would be better off checking out Mistry's far superior earlier effort East Is East.

While it might not benefit from a big Holly- or Bollywood budget, it at least boasts a storyline and recognisable jokes.

Verdict: 4/10

Forget

East

is East,

Jimi's

career is

heading

south with

this one.