Mani Ratnam's "Guru"

The Rag-to-riches is not a phenomenon exclusive to America. Mani ratnam's "Guru" is a testimony to the fact that ambition, determination and perseverance can be a winning potion for any aspiring person, irrespective of nationality. The movie charts the life of Gurukanth Desai, the disowned son of a school headmaster, and his rise to the helm of the Indian business world from frugal and humble beginnings.

The Story
Guru starts off in a small Gujrati village. Young 'GURU' KANT DESAI (played by Abhishek Bachhan) can't pass his exams but he dreams big. He leaves for Turkey against his fathers wishes. There he delivers oil gallons. But this genius is not interested in mundane works; he dreams big and wants to earn for himself rather than work for somebody else. In between Mallika Sherawat sizzles as a belly dancer; delivering her oomph which will sure earn the applause of front rows (I was sitting in back rows). Young Guru gets a promotion in the job, but instead he decides to move back to his village to start his own bijness (that's what he calls business).

He returns to India, but his father criticizes him for even thinking about starting a bijness. Meanwhile Guru is looking for a partner to start his bijness. He finds his childhood friend Jignesh (Arya Babbar) who doesn't have sufficient money because his father is saving money for his daughter's dowry. In turn Guru agrees to marry his sister (for starting a business). But luckily for him the girl turns out to be who else, but Aishwarya (Now, even I don't need any dowry, I am totally against dowry). Guru leaves with Aishwarya and Arya to chase his dreams. But he sees that the system is full of restrictions, which hampers starting of any bijness. He is a lay man who has no information of any taxes, laws etc. All he wants to do is earn money, but License Raj is at its peak. Business is full of heavy import duties, rules and regulations. At this point Guru finds a friend in Mithun Chakorbarty, who owns a newspaper. His newspaper stands for truth and Mithun stands by his values all throughout the movie. Mithun gives a very riveting performance (those who despise him, please see this movie to see a great performance by the dancing prince). He helps Guru to start his textile bijness when he publishes an article about contract system in textile market and exposes the system. This is beginning of building of an empire which will soon have 30 lakh shareholders and will be India's largest company.

Soon Guru moves on to bigger things, instead of trading textile he wants to make textile. His company Shakti floats its IPO (shares) and builds its factory in Gujarat. The Company starts earning huge profits and Guru becomes highly popular. Soon Guru starts manipulating the system. He bribes, evades import duty, manipulates share market and does all other unfair things known to mankind. He only has 1 motive. To earn money. But righteous Mithun gets to know of Guru's deeds and he starts bringing his misdeeds to public. Helping Mithun in this is Madhvan( who also delivers a very good performance). Madhvan tackles Guru with his own weapons. He exposes Guru's every misdeed. In between we see Vidya Balan(looking very pretty), she is crippled from her legs. She is Mithun's granddaughter and shares a daughterly relationship with Guru. Madhvan falls in love with Vidya and they both marry, knowing fully well that Vidya only has about a year to live(she suffers from a deadly disease which has crippled her legs). Madhvan starts publishing articles which completely destroys Guru's reputation and leads to closure of his factories. Guru is dragged to court. And from this moment movie becomes very engrossing. How Guru faces the court and how he deals with a death of a near person comprises the rest of the story.

The Good
First of all let me start by mentioning Abhishek Bachan's role, as this is the role that Guru is built upon. If there ever was a movie where one actor dominated so completely I would only compare Kamal Hassan in Nayakudu/Nayakan. Abhishek should be very proud of what he has accomplished in Guru, it is something that some actors haven't or will not achieve in a life time. He is impeccable for the hardest of critic to comment. His histrionics are brilliant and the way he lost and gained weight during different parts of the movie demonstrate how serious Maniratnam and Abhishek were in making this movie. Keep the awards ready please...Abhishek Bachan has his name stamped on them.

The story is quite simple; it is the narration and the characterisation that makes this movie so unique and interesting. it's about a common mans journey to build India's largest company with the help of its share holders by whatever means possible. In Guru, Guru Kanth Desai is not portrayed as an invincible man rather he is played as a very good business man who can talk and do right things at the right time. The narration of the story is so tight you never flinch. (This applies only to serious movie watchers, not the ones who cannot do without masala and comedy in a film) Maniratnam is one the best story tellers in our country if not the best, and he does that perfectly again.

A word of mention...
Aishwarya Rai has a very strong role in Guru; strong roles are very scarce in Bollywood these days...especially for female artists. Aishwarya stays with Guru throughout the movie and stays on the top of Bollywood by doing that brilliantly. Mithun & Madhavan are the adamant characters that fight for the right, when I say adamant they really are in the movie and you feel their willingness to stay on the right side of things all through the movie. Maniratnam has made a wonderful movie full of strong characters, great screen play, brilliant music and marvellous photography by Rajiv Menon. He needs to be commended for this effort. It is no wonder he takes two years to make out one movie.

The Bad
The predictability of the screenplay.
Everyone knows its a bio pic of Dhirubhai Ambani, still it didn't need to be so predictable. The biggest disappointment was that there was no evolution in the the protagonist as he grows from being a common villager to India's biggest industrialist . Abhishek didn't age at all, physically or otherwise ! The only physical differences on Abhishek and Aishwarya were some coloring in their hair, to depict the passaeg of time, and some dark circles under their eyes. Obviously, one was no expecting the magic and mastery of Nayagan here, but at least there was potential to get somewhere close to that. There was no insight, revelation or the plotting that made Guru the man he was. Lots of instances in the movie is happenstance. Guru bumping into Mithunda on the road, winning the contracts, deciding to make polyester or even meeting Aishwarya for the first time.

Glorification of Guru.
The end glorifies Guru as the messiah ,as the best gift to mankind and the masses. While the film maker has every right to express his opinion on the protagonist, the glorification clearly plays to the galleries and all those who had confronted him for a right reason are totally forgotten ! ( the BIL, Madhavan, Mithun etc )

The relationship with Mithun.
The movie hinges on the relationship between Mithun and Abhishek. Some of the best moments in the movie are their scenes together. It so wonderfully set up leading to the interval and subsequent scenes of Abhisheks aides trying to bash up Mithun and the Aishwarya visiting Mithun at his house, leading you to hope that this is heading somewhere. But Alas! the movie ends with an elaborate court drama and Mithun who is a defacto father figure is conveniently forgotten and sidelined.

The Vidya Balan & Madhavan Track.
It had absolutely no relevance to the movie. Why was Vidya Balan a handicapped person ? What does she really think about Guru ? Her elaborate death scene had no connection with the plot, it only served to drag the movie even further.

The Music.
A.R.Rehman and Mani Ratnam have always created magic. But here, the songs are just plain ordinary. Every one of them. Both Maiya Maiya and Ek lo Ek Muft would feature in the bottom 10 songs of Rehman of all time. Even the background music is pedestrian, and this includes the gung ho "GuruBhai" track.

The works of Mani Ratnam, Rajiv Menon and A.R.Rehman in Tamil are miles ahead and far more better than in Hindi. I don't know why this is so. Overall , Guru is not a bad movie , but I was just disappointed that it didn't deliver what it promised.

The Point is...( Rating | 6/10)
It is most definitely worth a watch, though don't keep your expectations as high as the hype it generated. If you ask me what is the one reason why you should watch "Guru", i would say that Mani Ratnam has made Aishwarya act.

yours truly, Ar'Nath