´Love Guru´ May Reinforce Negative Stereotypes Of Hindus:HAF

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Hindu groups are protesting the release of the movie, alleging that it "lampoons their religion and beliefs".

After viewing the film, the HAF said many foundation "members expressed unease as the film does nothing to promote tolerance and pluralism and may reinforce widely held negative and exotic stereotypes of Hindus and their spiritual leaders." "This film was so over-the-top as a satire, that it could not be mistaken with real Hindu traditions," HAF member Shyam Shivramakrishnan said after the screening.

"Those who ridicule Hindus based on this film would be using the movie as a pretext to exhibit pre-formed biases," Shivramakrishnan, who is a doctoral student at the University of Minnesota, said.

"The film was vulgar, crude and, in the opinion of many of our attendees, too often tasteless in its puerile choice of humor," said Aseem Shukla, member of the HAF's board of directors.

"Very few of the Hindus viewing the film, however, found it overtly anti-Hindu or mean-spirited, indeed no Hindu or Sanskrit terms beyond 'guru' or 'ashram' are ever used in the film. But given the costumes and overall concept of the film, Paramount would have done well to issue a disclaimer in the opening sequence that the characters and events are not based on Hindu spiritual masters," Shukla added.

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