By D Sheth

Mariska Hargitay! Mike Myers in the Love Guru will have you laughing off the edge of your seat in his first live action comedy since Austin Powers. While most reviewers were prepped in advance to dislike the movie because of its portrayal of the most populous religion in India, those critics should meditate, do some yoga, attend a laughing session and realize that it is merely a fictional story with Mike Myers being his lovable, goofy self in one long Saturday Night Live skit that you never want to end.

Mike Myers stars as Guru Pitka, who grows up in an ashram run by a cross-eyed swami called “Tugginmypudha”, acted by the Mahatma Gandhi himself, Ben Kingsley. There he learns to become the “Love Guru”, a spiritual advisor where he gains prominence in Hollywood for helping lost souls find their love. He develops self-help acronyms such as B.L.O.W.M.E. - Be Loving & Open With My Emotions and G.U.R.U. – Gee You Are You. Jessica Alba, who looks better in her sari than any Miss India, comes to the Love Guru for help. As the owner of a hockey team playing in the Stanley Cup for the first time in fifty years, her star player, the “Tiger Woods” of hockey played by Weeds actor Romany Malco, loses his mojo when he discovers his wife left him for the rival team’s goalie, Jacques “Le Coq” Grande. The size of Le Coq, and I don’t mean Justin Timberlake’s body height, is no match for the efforts of Guru Pitka in re-uniting Malco’s character with his wife. The movie is pleasantly inundated with a multitude of cameos including Jessica Simpson and Kanye West playing themselves.

For all those critical reviews you might have read, you will like The Love Guru if you like Mike Myers for himself, not as a Wayne Campbell or as an Austin Powers. There is a common theme though between Powers and Pitka - their perverted humor. The silly plot is really just the alleyway to see Myers shine in one of his few appearances as a lead, live actor. He reminds me of a Charlie Chaplin on a two-reeler, walking away smiling and happy after giggling and laughing for 88 minutes. Dr. Evil becomes Dr. Love and you will chuckle all the same.

The best supporting actor award goes out to Malco playing Darren Roanoke, dubbed Roa-Choke, who we expect to see in more lead roles in the box office. His performance eclipses cumulatively his prior appearances from the Showtime series to The 40 Year Old Virgin and Blades of Glory. Justin Timberlake shows that he might just be the next Mark Wahlberg in the movie business while Jessica Alba proves that she can act and dance in any Bollywood film that may give Karisma Kapoor a run for her money. Hockey coach played by Verne Troyer, popularly known as Minnie-Me, acts effortlessly and is the perfect partner to Myers’ consistent mockery of him as a Keebler elf, hobbit and an endless supply of midget jokes.

Between Adam’s Sandler’s Zohan and Mike Myers’ Guru Pitka, they seem to humorously have a knock on every culture from Hinduism to Judaism to Islam – yet You Don't Mess with the Zohan doesn’t get the same criticism in Israel as The Love Guru is getting in India. Myers, like Sandler, is smart enough to stay on the right side of the offensiveness. As part of Guru Pitka’s B.I.B.L.E. – Basic Instructions for Leaving Earth – go see the movie, sit back, let yourself go and as Guru Pitka says “there is no failure only early attempts at success”.