Ah, what a crazy Canadian that Mike Meyers is! I am very proud to say he was brought up in my adopted home town of Toronto, Canada, eh.
So this his latest venture into a character since his Austin Powers days.
The music, that is quite dominant throughout the movie, is beautiful and hopefully will help influence some musicians to use small doses in their playing style!
(Note: the surname Power originally comes from Waterford, Ireland. The name was changed to Powers when some emigrated to North America. I got this first hand information while visiting my relatives there and checking out the old phone book!)
Love Guru is basically about a American kid who was abandoned by his parents at the gates of a Ashramand raised there. He later moves to the US to gain fame and fortune. His way of life is put to the test by attempting to re-unite the captain of our beloved/hated Toronto Maple Leafs.
The East Indian music, in my experience and in the movie as well, can place you into an outer body sensation if you let it. I can personally attest to this because this thing happened to me while playing live in a East Indian wedding band at my cousin’s wedding. Since her husband is Hindu, they had a Hindu and Catholic ceremonies.
Since her husband is a Hindu recording artist, he naturally wanted to play at his own wedding. I was honored to be asked to play with him and his two buddies for this event. It was held at the Hare Krishna Temple in Toronto and boy the architecture in this place is something to see. One was a wooden flute player and the other, and get this one, a Tabla player who is Ravi Sanker’s God Son!
While performing one song, and the name eludes me right now, he let me loose to play this solo in a D minor open string tuning. During the solo I started to drift away. As I played the solo, everything around me was pushed away slowly and incrementally. No, I wasn’t smoking anything and Hindu’s do not drink either! I never had this type of experience this before or since, especially in front of a large audience. I realize you can fall into a zone while playing live, but this was exceptional.
So if you get the chance to see this movie, I hope that you come away from it with a little more love and respect for the East Indian music style and maybe it’ll move you to pickup a CD or two for your collection, eh?
Keep on Jammin’