GURU CAST: Mithun Chakraborty, Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, R. Madhavan, Vidya Balan and others DIRECTOR: Mani Ratnam RATING:***
T he character of Gurukant Desai (Abhishek Bachchan) in Guru, facing an enquiry for corruption and large scale irregularities in his company, says 40 years ago a man had broken rules and today we call him Bapu! This highly irresponsible statement ends up devaluing Mani Ratnams film. Ratnam chooses as his hero a poor schoolmasters son, whose ambition and business acumen make him Indias biggest industrialist. If he uses mostly foul means to get there, says the director, it doesnt really matter, because the end justifies the means. His enemies, apart from a rival, old-money business house, are a newspaper baron and his former mentor (Mithun Chakraborty) and his pet reporter (R. Madhavan). What they are exposing about Guru is not wrong, yet they are portrayed as villains and Guru as a martyr and victim. In making so simplistic a film, Mani Ratnam missed a great opportunity to portray an accurate socio-political picture of contemporary India. The film moves within a very narrow circle, obstinately refusing to look at the larger picture. Instead of wasting valuable time on rain dances and item numbers, he could have made some comment on the era India started changing rapidly in the late eighties and nineties and on the system that made a man like Gurukant Desai a hero. The first half is made up of quick vignettes of Guru going to Turkey to work at a low level job- theres a totally needless item number by Mallika Sherawat, and one had hoped at least Mani Ratnam had grown beyond such juvenile box-office tactics. He returns to his village, marries Sujata (Aishwarya Rai) for her dowry, so that he can start a business in Bombay. He is up against the traditional traders who dont want an outsider to crash into their domain. Here he is befriended and helped by Nanaji (Chakraborty) and is soon a successful industrialist, who makes his fortune by making small investors his partners and bypassing conventional finance sources. Overlook how superficial the film is and there are Mani Ratnams aesthetic visuals (Rajiv Menon) to be admired, whether it is the rain-soaked village, Aishwarya Rais overwhelming beauty or period Mumbai recreated by Samir Chanda. There are several highpoints like Gurus brisk romance with Sujata, his fierce confidence when he confronts hostile traders, his deviousness in dealing with a faceless minister, his bantering with Nanajis disabled granddaughter (Vidya Balan) or his physical collapse towards the end. There are just as many longueurs like the unnecessary Madhavan-Vidya Balan track, or the many scenes devoted to the brother-in-law (Arya Babbar); the Turkey scenes are too sketchy to leave an impression. The music (A R Rahman) should have had a bit more of a period/Gujarati sound, and the choreography is ordinary. Abhishek Bachchans performance is both strenuous and studied, but he props up the film. If, finally, Guru is disappointing, its because much better was expected from Mani Ratnam. Deepa Gahlot
