Movie Review: Guru

Posted January 13th, 2007 by Sunil Chaudhary

Movie with a message, that seems to be the theme in Bollywood these days. Rang De Basanti taught us that no nation is perfect, you have to make it perfect; Lage Raho reiterated the message of Bapu and KANK taught us, it's fine to cheat as long as you cry a lot (just kidding). So What does Guru teach us? It teaches us not only to dream big but also to do whatever you can to make that dream come true.....

Some call it the final episode in Ratnam's trilogy while some say it is based on Dhiru Bhai's story. I feel it's the story of every Indian be it from a small village Idhar to Silicon Valley, who had a big dream and fought hard to achieve it. A Villager, Visionary, Winner - yes that sums up the movie pretty much. I don't want to spoil the movie by typing the entire script here, but briefly, it's the story of boy, Guru Kant Desai (Abhishek Bachchan) whose father never believed in him and against his wishes the boy goes to Turkey at a very young age to work as a delivery boy for cans of oil. The boy rises up as a sales manager at a big oil factory and decides he doesn't want to work for the "Gora Sahib" any more but do his own business. This boy who doesn't know how to speak English, creates the biggest company in India and in the process makes millions of people wealthy. This is the stuff, fantasies are made of and great fantasies make great movies and Guru is one such movie.

Sometime back I wrote a post on how critical Guru is for Abhishek Bachchan and how if it didn't do well could mean trouble for him. But you know what, as I walked out of the theatre, I didn't really care if the movie did well or not, because this is one of those performances where I have no problems putting Abhishek Bachchan in the leagues of his dad, Aamir Khan, Kamal Hassan, Sanjeev Kumar and for that matter any great actor in the world.

Guru marks an important chapter in Abhishek's career and I think his role though in some ways similar to the driven, angry young man of yesteryears, Vijay, still has an enormous dose of originality in it. Throughout the movie he goes through a range of emotions, however there is this one particular look on his face which is pure gold. Every time when he talks about his dream and his work, he glows and he smiles and his eyes loudly and clearly speak out that "I know my goal and no one can stop me from achieving it". That one expression cannot be taught, as an actor, you have to get into the skin of the character to be able to honestly portray that and AB did it flawlessly. With this movie Abhishek has proved that he is a force to reckon with in the coming years.

No doubt it is Abhishek's movie, but the supporting cast is also phenomenal. Aishwarya does for Abhishek in this movie what he couldn't do for her in Umrao Jaan. She delivers one of her best performances to date and for the first time the chemistry between the two is real. She plays a rebellious village girl who once she finds her love in her husband, blindly trusts him and is ready to play the supporting role and help him in everything. Mithun again proves that he's one of the most versatile actors in the nation. Playing the role of an honest newspaper publisher, you forget he's the same Mithun Da who has made some of the most mind numbing movies in Bollywood. After all you don't win multiple National Awards for nothing. He plays the role of Guru Kant Desai's mentor and eventually his nemesis.

Madhavan who is Mithun's weapon in his fight against Guru, delivers a great performance as well. He is one of the finest actors of our generation and he proves why he's one of Mani's favorite actors. Every one's role in the movie is very well defined, however, I really didn't understand why was Vidya Balan in the movie? I know why she signed the movie, but what was the need of her character is still puzzling to me. If you remove her role from the movie, it might cut a few reels but it would have no affect on the story. Anyways I guess she was the emotional link between Mithun, Madhvan and Abhishek. Nevertheless she's a fabulous actress and does a great job in the movie. The rest of the cast including Manoj Joshi, Aryan Babbar and Rajendra Gupta are fine and do justice to their roles.

On the technical side, I think Anurag Kashyap excels once again by writing powerful dialogues. Abhishek's monologue in the end is priceless. Cinematography by Rajiv Menon and Art by Sabu Cyril should get 5 stars for aptly portraying the changing times through the movie. I think the biggest pat on the back should go to the costume designer and the make up artist for doing such an awesome job.

We reviewed the music sometime back and called it one of the greatest compilations ever, however I think if there is a flaw in the movie (which every movie has), then its the songs. They are misplaced and they are too many. In my opinion they were stopping the flow of the movie, making it slack in portions. Except for Mallika's item number, she's one woman that can never be misplaced in a movie!!

Now that we've talked about everyone, let's talk about the Director. I think most people agree that Mani Ratnam is one of the greatest directors in India and he proves it yet again. There have been quite a few that have come up recently that have started making brave movies, but Mani has been doing it for a long time. Guru is one such movie, its grand, it has a vision and it has a message. However you have to watch the entire movie to realize how everything comes together. The reason why I say that is because while watching the movie I was a little apathetic towards Guru, wondering why should I even care about this guy and his dream? However in the second half and towards the end it dawned upon me and I understood Mani's stand in the movie.

Does that make sense?

Let me explain...but I warn you there might be some spoilers so you might want to read this after you watch the movie.....

Anyways so when I was watching the movie there were lot of questions unanswered, for example how is Guru cheating and what has he done that has pissed Mithun off so much? Then, his rise to the top was pretty quick and Mani didn't use a lot of footage to showcase that and because I was thinking about these things I didn't really get close to the character. However, when you see the end, you realize that all that doesn't matter because what Mani was trying to show us, was the story of this boy who came into the world ruled by the rich and turned it upside down by doing "whatever" was necessary to succeed. The truth is, like all of us Guru was part of a system, unfortunately, a corrupt system and he learnt how to work it. The system was designed so that only rich remained rich, it's like an old boys club where an outsider cannot enter. And to enter you have to learn the rules and then use them to succeed. But when you do that you piss off the rich, obviously, but you also piss of your own people because they think you are a sell out. That's when I started to feel for this guy and realized how devoted he was for his dream that he never for once thought that he was doing something wrong. He just wanted to succeed. That over arching theme shadows all the minute details of the movie and therefore they don't matter. I think every entrepreneur who has tried to do business in India (or any country where the system is full of corruption) will associate with this story.

Knocking off half a star for the misplaced songs, I think the movie deserves 4 and a half bright shining stars for acting, music, originality and a truly honest attempt to showcase what the world has just started witnessing, the entrepreneurial spirit of Indian youth. Don't miss this movie!!