Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Film Review--Guru

Guru
Direction: Mani Ratnam
Cast : Mithun,Abhishek Bachhan,
Aishwarya Rai,Madhavan,Vidhya Balan
Cinematograhy : Rajiv Menon.
Music : A.R.Rahman




So..to put it in Mani Ratnam's words good
fiction must be rooted in reality.Guru could
have been inspired from Ambani,LN Mittal,or
it could have been inspired from the fictional
characters of Kieth Townsend and Richard Armstrong
of Jeffrey Archer's The Fourth Estate.

It is about a protagonist who belongs
to "Veni Vidi Vici" category.It is
about an ambitious man brimming with
ideas for whom the ends justify the means.

The story starts with Gurukant Desai(Abhishek)
(in Tamil the name is Gurunath Desikan!)
going to Istanbul to nurture his ambitions
and returning back to India to chase
his own dreams.

Starts his own polyester textile business
in Bombay,initially struggles through
the bureaucratic hurdles, fights back,
slowly subdues his opponents,learns the art
of cajoling and coaxing the politicians,
expands his business and becomes
unstoppable at one point.

The carefully chosen words,meticulously
delivered dialogues and the strategy Guru
devises during his meeting with the
politician to prevail upon him to obtain
permission for his new petro chemical
business will of-course be a discussion
among the budding entrepreneurs. That sequence
is a typical Mani Ratnam's magnum opus.It also
exposes the dangerous liaisons that the
business tycoons and the politicians enjoy.

The love-hate relationship between Guru
and the newspaper editor(Mithun) seems
to be new to the Indian film industry.
Abhishek expresses his greedy ambitions
through his eyes.He is at his best in acting.
We can see his acting skills honed
right from RGV's Sarkar.

Madhavan is a young journalist who is up
against Abhishek in movie and in acting.
Vidya Balan is beautiful.

It will be a sin if I dont mention about
Mallika Sherawat's "Mayya Mayya" song.
It comes at the very beginning of the movie.
So...!! Sujatha's(Aishwarya) introduction
song at the top of the Mahabalipuram's four
pillared Mandapam and the Tere Bina song shot in
Maduarai Thirumalai Nayakkar Mahal is aesthetic
and artistic.Seems Mani Ratnam is fond of these
two places.It has come in many of his movies.
(Iruvar,Bombay,Thalapathi,Thiruda Thiruda)

Rajiv Menon speaks through the colors and
lighting with great elan.Whilst the characters
speak through Vijay Krishna Acharya's sharp dialogues.
In Tamil it is Azagham Perumal,director of Dum Dum Dum.
Rahman's music is dulcet and the
back ground music full-fills the need
of the scenes.

Fine,why is that there is always a
shade of sorrow and melancholy in second
half screenplay when he is active in business.
Is it because pain is part of
one's life who has reached great heights.
We can see the same pain being protrayed
in Iruvar also.

Seems the slowness at some instances in
the movie cant be avoided when you want
to tell the real life.

Villager,Visionary,Winner applies both
to Gurukant Desai and Mani Ratnam!

10 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:03 AM

    Unna nambi ticket vanga poren... nalla illa!! mavanae setha da...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous12:01 PM

    nice review ... it's increasing my tendency to watch the movie soon ... but you didn't mention in which language its good tamil or hindi?

    because i won't understand dialogues in hindi rather i'll understand concept of the scenes.

    And one more thing i came to know from manirathnam interview, he told that you won't feel like a dubbing movie ...

    do you have any idea on this? if so plz comment?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Srini,
    Konjam kalai-kannodo itha
    paarkanum.appathaan nalla irukkum..:-)

    Arun,
    I watched in Hindi..it
    is more of a Gujarathi slang.
    My hindi is not that good..
    to be frank it is bad..!!
    I didnt get many dialogues..
    Then I watched in Tamil..
    You can see in Tamil...

    ReplyDelete
  4. waiting for the weekend then... it will be Guru Time... thx senthil

    ReplyDelete
  5. smart, i watched in Hindi too with English subtitles.

    Guru's vision/dominance and never-say-die attitude was portrayed beautifully but the struggles in his business was not enforced as much as i wud have wanted mani to...
    say, in bringing up the factory. Just 4 snapshots and he is owning the biggest factory in India !!!
    maybe mani cud have shown how he mended his way thru the bureaucrats... how he broke few laws to get to where he wanted to !!

    and GURUBHAI pretty much sounds DHIRUBHAI :)

    nevertheless,no masala and a very nice movie. i really liked it.
    mayya mayya, tere bina and barso re... very well picturized and "yaade athure" creates an impact whenever itz in the background !!!

    Nice review machi.

    -Arun

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nice review man.. I really liked ur way of comparing the movie with mani's oldies. It just gave a fresh insight again. In mani's movies ull always expect a kind of slowness that too one of his tricks any way good keep it up..

    ReplyDelete
  7. Always "GO" for Maniratnam's movies. ur review increased my interest. Good review!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hmm .. interesting review .. though you forget to mention about Mithunda ..his performance was beautiful .. :-) ..

    I would like to mention about the incident where Dhirubhai had a meeting with Rajiv Gandhi about his petro industry ..then during 1980s its called Licence Raj .. where its horrible to think about starting a new venture .. but Dhirubhai oops GuruBhai did it ..

    One more suggestion from my side is that if you read about Dhirubhai's life history before seeing the movie ..it will be better you to relate the incidents coming in the movie and for better understanding .

    njoy ... I like the dialogue in the movie between Gurubhai and the minister about the petro industry .. listen carefully to the dialogue .. excerpts of the dialogue is given below ...

    He says to the minister that I came here not to ask permission but for an opinion ... I have a load ( 500 Crore business ) and you tell me what to do with that .. its huge load that can kill or destroy anybody ..

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks for ur comments kaankshe..
    by the way may I knw who you are!!!

    ReplyDelete

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