January 13, 2007 Impressions from Guru
Guru 1. Mani does a good job of first publicizing that the movie is on Dhirubhai Ambani and later making it a point to deny it every pre-release interview. He did it successfully earlier in Iruvar and ended up generating huge publicity for the film and this time too, does it to perfection. I dont know how he manages to create that buzz time and time again even though the movies do not offer any suspense in terms of the plot. By the way, Guru is entirely based on Dhirus life even if it wasnt obvious through the song Gurubhai Gurubhai . It is left to the viewer to count the similarities between Guru and Dhiru which have been sprinkled throughout the movie. Guru leaving for his home country after a promotion, his native, his dads profession, his accomplice leaving him midway, his companys symbol, his first car, the stroke he suffers and the area it affects, the location of his companys shareholder meetings, his one-liners are some examples. 2. The screenplay of Guru is also very similar to Iruvar with several scenes of short durations and abrupt endings. While in Iruvar, it aided the narration, here it neither portrays his personal life clearly, nor gives adequate time to his professional successes. It leaves the viewers halfway in both these aspects of his life. In fact, throughout the movie, a Manis fan is left to compare the similarities of the plot with Manis other movies. The tactic of depicting both the positive and negative shades of a controversial personality and then questioning his character and defending his acts to an extent and leaving the final judgement to the viewer was also used in Nayagan (when Velus daughter questions him to which he responds by giving several examples and says, Avan(gal)a nirutha sollu, naa nirutharen, and again when his grandson asks him, Neenga nallavara, kettavara?). The heros wife giving birth to twins and the use of rain in important parts of the movie reminds one of Bombay. Again, as they did in Bombay, though not to that extent, some songs clearly hampered the narrative and could have been dispensed with. On the whole, this movie again proves that Mani Ratnam is a formula director. 3. Abhishek has probably given his best performance. His intensity is evident in most of the scenes; whenever he misses out, though, he leaves the viewer to recall Kamals portrayal of Velu Nayakan. Though Kamals acting in Nayagan lent itself to funny imitations (especially his cry on his sons death and neenga nallavara kettavara part) and he was, sometimes, criticized for over-acting, exceedingly viewers will miss his acting in the last couple of decades (80s-90s). Coming back to Guru, Hindi audience will simply love Abhishek whereas he will have to climb the difficult mountain of comparison with Kamal to be appreciated by the Tamil audience. Aishwarya, on the other hand, has no such problems. Since the viewers go in with zilch expectations from her, she will win hands down. However, she could have danced a little better. One also fails to comprehend her exposure in Barso Re song. Madhavan looks a lot younger when compared to his recent movies, but his acting and dialogue delivery is monotonous and predictable. Mithun da is wonderful and Vidya is bubbly. 4. It is not mandatory for Hindi movies to show a kiss. That scene was very pathetic and the only worse kiss on screen I can recall was in Neal-n-Nikki. The actors seemed very uncomfortable and tentative. 5. The climax is too dragging and contrived. It starts out setting big expectations and fizzes out without leaving an impression. The climax could have been more realistic and trimmed. The time gained from leaving out some songs and trimming the climax could have been used to strengthen the plot. 6. A.R.Rehmans music has been good in parts. Though a couple of songs, Ai Hairathe and Tere Bina are excellent, many other tunes and interludes bear resemblance to his earlier works. The initial portion of Tere Bina has been used throughout the movie. 7. To sum up, the movie is excellent when compared to the Hindi movies being dished out every week. Personally, I love those movies that affect me to an extent that they make me think and talk about them in the subsequent days (and no, I dont include Pudupettai that left me with thalavali the next day :) ). This movie, after a long time, had that effect. Mani Ratnam has lived up to his reputaion, but has not tried to exceed the expectations. P.S: Two of my KV IIT fellow alumni have played a role in the film. One is of course, Rajiv Menon. The other guy, Ravi Prakash, is actually not very prominent in the film. He sits to the right of Roshan Seth in the climax scenes. He has also acted in Alaypayuthey and Boys. http://rkarthik.blogsome.com/2007/01/13/impressions-from-guru/
