Tamil Guru does not have the real feel
Sriram Iyer
When Yuva was being made into a bilingual movie, the general feeling was that
Mani Ratnam had
learnt from his failure in Uyire.
But these impressions have dispelled now that Guru has been dubbed and released
in Tamil.
Watch Guru for the actors
Having to see Abhishek Bachchan and a whole lot of other actors speaking Tamil
while their lips
move differently is quite a strain to begin with. Moreover, the story is
supposed to be set
somewhere in Thirunelveli in southern Tamil Nadu whereas the costumes and the
set up resembles
western India from where the original Hindi version is based.
This hitch remains alive throughout the movie, successfully depriving the
viewer of the real
feel.
This time around Mani narrates the story of Guru Nath Desikan (Abhishek
Bachchan), a resolute
boy from a small village who goes on to become one of the premier
industrialists of the
country. The journey is characterised by hard work, determination, passion,
grit and quite a
bit of the gray.
'Entertainment is not a bad word'
Neither his poor family background nor his deterrent father could stop him from
going to Turkey
where he delivers petrol cans. But soon his intense over-ambitious
materialistic urge forces
him to quit the job and return to India to start his own business-venture, the
only barrier
being the lack of finance.
His decision to marry Sujatha (Aishwarya Rai), his best friend's sister, only
to get the dowry
which he could use as his capital gives the viewer a clear idea of the
character very early in
the movie. The occasional downhill ride does not bother the extremely motivated
profiteer,
Guru.
Straight from the Guru's mouth
However, as he runs faster, he kicks up dust. Bribes and scandals became the
backdrop to his
meteoric rise to glory. He isn't bothered but his near and dear ones do bother.
The rift
between him and the righteous Nanaji (Mithun Chakraborty), Guru's mentor during
his early days
in Mumbai and the editor of a newspaper, widens with every stage of development
in Guru's life.
Along with Shyam (Madhavan), Nanaji constantly tries to expose the unjust ways
of the seemingly
grand Guru.
The movie successfully brings out the several facets of the life of Guru. The
realism in the
evolution of his relationships with people around him shows the distinguished
touch of Mani
Ratnam.
Abhishek seems to like every bit of his streak in the gray that started with
Yuva. While he
rules the show, the performance of the cast as a whole is heartening,
especially those from
Mithunda and Madhavan. Aishwarya gets better in the second half where there is
less of an
opportunity to flaunt her beauty.
Marvelling over Mallika
Vidya Balan and Manoj Joshi do quite well in their small roles. The effort put
in the movie
becomes obvious in Abhishek's paunch that appeared and Madhavan's paunch, quite
a bit of which
disappeared.
The Rajiv Menon-Mani Ratnam duo, that spelt its magic in Bombay, has worked
again. With his
expertise over the Digital Intermediate grading technique, Rajiv has made the
visuals look
exemplary. Art director Samir Chanda's contribution in giving the movie the
period feel cannot
be understated.
The music of A.R.Rahman, though not one of his best albums, adds to the feel,
except for the
odd abrupt song.
Suriya does a good job lending his voice to Abhishek, but the movie is too
conspicuous a dub.
Showcasing Guru
The biggest drawback of the movie is the dubbing. It is quite difficult to
digest the fact that
half the city of Mumbai speaks Tamil.
The director of a company conducts a whole annual general meeting, full of
speeches that would
shame the president of America, in Tamil. In the climax, a whole judicial
enquiry takes place,
which is then followed by a monologue, all in Tamil.
In addition to that, the movie doesn't focus much on the rise of the
industrialist itself, as
much as on what followed the rise. In fact one might even say that the
character of Guru is
little too black to be termed gray.
The limit seems to be lost in the concluding reel, when there is an attempt to
portray the
highly motivated capitalist as a patriotic and messiah and his selfish and
illegal profiteering
as something very insignificant.
Trying to compare unlawful business tactics to that of Gandhi's rejection for
colonial rule and
its law was simply outrageous. For his class, Mani Ratnam could have done
without such
idolising. Given the subject dealt with, that is not expected to strike a chord
with the
masses, the dubbing in Tamil wasn't completely necessary.
http://inhome.rediff.com/movies/2007/jan/13guru.htm
