I’m not going to attempt a review because I’ve read far too many by now and so have you.
Some quick thoughts that race through my mind after watching Guru this late in the day. Spoilers galore.
1. Mani Ratnam pays tribute to his own earlier works. How weird is that? In a lot of ways, it does look like a rehash of his scenes and techniques from his earlier films but I would credit the filmmaker with more intelligence. He has made only one film before in Hindi, a language still alien to him. And given that Dil Se bombed because of its radical ending, Mani probably decided to play it safe and stack up his best from his earlier films, all into one movie.
What do you get if Nayakan (1987) met Roja (1992), moved to Bombay (1995) and had twins, played Godfather to a terminally ill Anjali (1990, instead of spastic, he makes her a patient of multiple sclerosis), had an ideological clash that broke a friendship between Iruvar (1997) that results in the all-powerful hero challenged by a young and honest cop (Nayakan)/IAS officer (Thalapathy, 1991) and now reporter (Guru) married to someone he loves? You get a Mani Ratnam showreel. Guru is exactly that.
The storyline is just an excuse to unleash some superlative moments, especially the ones that underline the director’s sensitivity in handling relationships (Guru’s relationship with his old friend, the relationship between Madhavan and Vidya, the relationship between Guru and Mithun, his relationship with his father, his relationship with Vidya and his relationship with his wife): super sensitively crafted.
2. The movie introduces to mainstream Hindi cinema a genre rarely seen. The biopic. That too, a biopic of not a necessarily honest man but of an ambitious man who had a vision and won. Mani Ratnam revels in showing us the greys of his protagonist.
He marries for dowry, he has no problem bribing or evading taxes and later tells the hearing commission that he’s only a product of the system that was not considerate to the poor. He only did what it took for a poor man to run a business in an environment not conducive for business.
You can’t help feeling that Mani has bought into Guru’s ideology and sacrificed the objectivity he maintained all through the film. But if a columnist has a right to take sides, why not a filmmaker?
3. Abhishek Bachchan, as even people who hate the movie agree, is certainly among the finest actors we have today. This is HIS film. Yes, he does deliver the role of a lifetime. I don’t like Aishwarya at all, but I thought she did manage a few scenes quite well towards the end. For once, they look like a couple in love. Having said that, an actress like Rani Mukherjee would’ve taken the same character to new heights. The rest of the cast is first rate and never have I seen these many top class performances all in one movie.
MADRAS INK. 
choosing abhishek is the best thing that mani has done in guru … and abhishek has surely made good use of it … aishwarya is entirely different from what wes saw in her first film iruvar(again by maniratnam), she has ofcourse done a good job … from the plastic face she carried in dhoom 2 to a emoting one in guru, she too has done her role well …
rajiv menon’s work was also awesome … sudhish you forgot to mention the art direction (i think sameer) … great job man, put up the streets of bombay in our very own binny mills
hey, its damn cool the digital workshop! good going…
cheers!
ramya
Sudish
I bow to your “karpanai valam”, to connect every single Maniratnam Hit out there with his latest offering.. 🙂 Surely, was an interesting point of view..
well yes it was a tribute to his earlier works,..but someone please tell him that the songs were too filmy and a total disconnect from the movie..tere bina was so sad!!!and this is defly his worst movie!!way too commercialised 😦
anonymous:
yeah, the art direction was superlative too though I suspect if the buildings facing marine drive did look the way it did in the film.. but hey, i din’t review the film, i just posted some random thoughts.
none:
idiots cancelled it. dunno when they were planning to tell me. found out when i called today. grrrr…
anonymous2:
thank you.
anonymous3:
with an a-list cast and crew and a budget needed for a period film, he better make sure he makes money out of it. remember how badly dil se bombed?? this is just his second outing in Hindi. he probably wanted to capture the Hindi speaking mass audience, which does not watch his movies. so yes, its certainly his worst hindi film.
The court room scene dialogue is so similar in soul and content to tHenry rearden’s speech in Atlas shrugged??
Agree with u on most points..esp aishwarya’s histrionics. I felt the songs, rather their placement was bad. Seemed more of a compulsion..The background score was pretty good..
And the worst choreography i’ve seen in recent times…
it was a gud effort on the whole anyway…. u need guts 2 take a biopic in an industry ruled by masala and mush……
hats off 2 abhishek 4 his brilliant performance….though he resembled Velu Nayakkar in a coupla scenes…
anonymous:
not seen/read atlas shrugged!
vijay:
yes, i didnt like the choreography and picturisation much and missed the only song that was apparently well done. mayya mayya. walked in right at the end of the song.
ck meister:
yes indeed.