James Ivory called The Guru “the most unseen and most mysterious of our movies . . . Merchant Ivory’s version of a sixties trip.” The film is centered around a sitar virtuoso (Uptal Butt) whose life is disrupted when he accepts an English pop star (Michael York) as a pupil and is simultaneously sought out by an exuberant young Englishwoman (Rita Tushingham) who decides to devote herself to him and his music. A gentle spoof on the Western fascination with the music and culture of India and the foibles of the flocks of seekers that descended on the country in the 1960s.