Guru (Hindi)

Guru is powerful cinema.
Guru is good entertainment.
Guru is pacy storytelling.......

- Yes it's all that but GURU is a movie where I found something more compared to other Maniratnam movies, the best of which according to me are Agni Natchatram, Nayagan, Mouna Ragam and Pallavi Anupallavi.
It does quite less to insult the viewer's intelligence.

Abhishek Bachchan gives a solid portrayal of Guru! He is successful because his role has character and haunts you for a while even after you leave the hall. He is utterly believable for most part of the movie, but only loses you for a while as he gets too patronizing on the judicial committee. That, I guess, could not have been avoided. It's only during that scene that the story stretches your imagination a wee bit.

Capitalism - few movies explore this concept. Guru would be one.
The movie begins with how our Gurubhai started off, with resemblances to Godfather II in these early scenes.
There are parallels you can draw from Nayagan of course, and also some what from Al Pacino movies (none of which can end without a pompish glorified speech by Pacino at the end!). But do notice, coming back to Godfather, the court room prosecution scenes - clearly inspired from Godfather where Pacino gets interrogated.
====>> Addendum!! Come to think of it, this scene is more inspired by Howard Hughes's interrogation in 'The Aviator' <<======

Capitalism - The way Mani has chosen to go here is to bring up a grey area about how moral or amoral can a capitalist become, or also, to what extent can that be alleged? Mani treats the topic with mastery here. For most part, it's a glorious story of how Gurukant Desai builds 'India ki sab se badi company' but some of the strongest scenes of the movie come from Mithun Chakraborty and Madhavan who play people persistent on bringing down Guru's empire to dust.

What made me like the movie most? While it's true that the whole movie is 'almost' a glorification of Guru's rise to power, it's also true that the movie is as much a 'think-for-yourself' challenge to the audience. How can a capitalist tyrant, merciless in his goals, justify the side effects to the society during his process of erecting an empire that will beat the first world giants? It's a grey area, and it looks like the writers want to start a public debate. Well not so much, it's only an attempt to portray it, as it was (!)

Some aspects such as below really caught my attention and made me appreciate Mani as a film maker: -
1) "60 crore logon me se tumhe yahee mila?" - Nariman point in the early 80s. Interesting to think how they would have shot it! (Assuming rest of the 'Mumbai' is a set in the Madras talkies studios)
2) Did anybody notice the Kagaz ke phool poster and the Taj mahal song on the LP? Quite thoughtful.
It does not at all seem like a south indian director is at the helm of affairs? Full marks on the ace dialogues and Abhishek's acting.

Aspects that kind of made me twitch:
- Aishwarya Rai
- Aishwarya Rai
- Aishwarya Rai
It's true that actors are 'rangmanch kE kaTputliya' in the director's hands, but literally?? Spare us!!! She is so wooden/plastic/puppetish (whatever-you-want-to-call-her) in Barso re megha megha and Dum-dara-dum, that you can say she is being herself again! Somebody asked me 'Has Vidya balan acted better than Aish?' What a question!? Vidya is a goddess - acting, looks, grace :). How I wish she was the heroine.

Speaking of songs, Dum-dara-dum, the song that ARR has dedicated to his association with Late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan during the decade, stays in your mind.
Found a blog that tries to capture the meaning of the song:
http://sagittarian-ramya.blogspot.com/2006/11/tere-bina-lyrics-guru.html
Bappi lahiri has a good time doing the 'almost satirical' ek lo ek muft.

The ever-ethereal lyrics by Gulzar play out like nobody else's can and remind you of his earlier work. For example: ae hairat-e aashiqui jagaa mat; pairon se zameen, zameen lagaa mat...

Enough said - Good stuff, so go get it!

Other suggested reading:
WIKI homepage of GURU, with vignettes by the main actors:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_%282007_film%29