Amit Reviews——“GURU”

What’s In it—- The movie narrates the life of GuruKant Desai(Abhishek Bachchan) from an ambitious child to a successful entrepreneur .At every stage in his life Guru faces some challenges or the other.Be it in the form of his father,bureaucrats,competitors,press,police, etc. but he stands tall and with immense determination and confidence he breaks apart all the hurdles and marches forward.
Guru is the story of a boy who goes to Turkey to work in a petroleum company after failing his school exams back home in a small Gujarat village.Due to his sheer hard work and skill ,his boss offers him the coveted position of a supervisor.But Guru’s logic is that if his boss thinks he is talented then why should he spend his effort working for his boss.He should work for himself.So he embarks on a journey to his hometown with dreams of being a businessman.

His father derides his dreams .But Guru knows his destination and he starts building the road.Guru’s thirst for success is such ,that he decides to marry Sujatha (Aishwarya Rai) only for her dowry money so that he can start a business.
Guru along with Sujatha and her brother(Arya Babbar) leave for Mumbai to start his business.By his charm ,skill,business instinct Guru manages to carve a niche in the cloth (polyster) industry.Many stones come across his path,but he leaps over all of them and marches at a rapid pace towards his destination.

His hunger for success is such that Guru does not mind using unlawful means to achieve what he wants.Seeing Guru’s behaviour Nanaji(Mithun Chakravarthy) ,who was Guru’s mentor in his initial days ,is very disturbed. And when Guru uses Nanaji’s Newspaper ,The Independent to settle a score with his competitors,Nanaji decides to expose Guru’s corrupt means to the public.He gives the task of exposing Guru’s fraudulent means to his ace reporter Shyam Saxena( R. Madhavan).The war between Guru and Shyam heats up as Guru’s public venture company, Shakti Corporation, increases in size and proportion to become one of the best polyester making companies in India. It is a war that will claim much from Guru.And leave Guru a changed man forever.

Thumbs Up—Abhishek Bachchan needs a standing ovation for his sterling performance.He expresses a gamut of emotions with the ease of a pro.While watching the film you do not see Abhishek Bachchan performing,who you see is Gurukant Desai.And that’s a big compliment indeed.The way he potrays the various phases in the life of Guru with a change in his mannerisms,his gait and voice is fabulous.Mithun Chakravarty gives a competent performance after a long time.R. Madhavan and Vidya Balan are passable and are not given much scope to perform.But what I was most happy to see was Aishwarya Rai’s performance. Abhishek Bachchan was undoubtedly the King of the film but Aishwarya got into the slippers of the Queen with great elegance.Lately Aishwarya’s beauty was overpowering her performance but in Guru it was quite the opposite.You see Aishwarya perform well after a real long hiatus
Mani Ratnam requires brownie points for getting out award winning performances from his main cast.The costumes,sets,cinematography are upto the mark and provide a great contribution for the portrayal of the changing times in Guru’s life.
A.R. Rahman’s music is very soulful as usual and leaves you mesmerized.Special mention here must be given to the love ballad Tere Bina and the heart rendering Ae Hairathe Aashiqui.

 Thumbs Down—-The songs though beautiful to here are mere road-blocks when it comes to the narration of the film. Especially “Ek Lo Ek Muft”,which simply irritates you.Mani Sir ,I know you have a fantastic score to boast off, but that does not mean you can throw the songs in the script as you please.Not even one song helps the narrative in any manner.

The Vidya -Balan Madhavan track is totally unwarranted for and just adds on to the reels of the movie.A major down is that the life of Guru as a businessman is not shown in detail.The way Guru apply’s his knowledge and makes business decisions is not not made visible to the viewers.What I wanted to watch is more of Guru as the businessman and I was immensely disappointed at what I saw.Explanation of some of the business strategies is done in a rapid manner and still befuddles me.The climax is a major drawback and is too loud and unrealistic.Instead of defending himself Guru simply starts doing “Lecture Baazi” and that does not really impress you.Although Abhishek’s performance is the best in that scene yet a poor climax somewhat reduces its effect.

Final Verdict—Watch Guru just for Abhishek’s fantastic performance and for a few scenes that touch you and inspire you. Remember one thing, Guru is an autobiography of Guru Bhai (not Dhiru Bhai).Therefore do not try playing Sherlock Holmes and find whether the life of Guru matches with Dhirubhai.Just watch the movie as Mani Ratnam wants you to see it. And you might just happen to like it.Personally I expected this movie to set a benchmark for all Bollywood Movies but unfortunately it does not. And I am mighty disappointed for that.

Rating—5.5/10