Guru – a film not to my liking – a review

The movie Guru left me with an uneasy feeling. I was not even sure whether I wanted to write a review on it…one of the reasons why I am so late.

A story of Dhirubhai’s life
The movie, directed by one our best directors, Mani Ratnam, is supposedly the story of one of India’s industrialists – Dhirubhai Ambani and this role is played by Abhishek Bachhan, a rising Bollywood star today.
Certainly, there are parallels with Dhirubhai. Guru’s meteroic rise from a worker in Turkey (Dhirubhai was in the middle east) to a successful industrialist, his circumventing the system to get there, the newspaper hate campaign against him…to his stroke which left his right arm paralysed. But whether this movie is flattering to Dhirubhai or not, I am not sure.
Poor message from the director
In a court case filed against him by the government for his breaking the law in numerous instances, Guru comes out the winner. I found the unabashed way the director washed Guru’s sins by proclaiming that his misdeeds were the only way to get around the corrupt and beaurocratic system a little hard to swallow. It was a way of saying that this is the only way to succeed in India. Instead of saying, this is how Guru suceeded, he said, Guru had no choice but to do this.
Everyone knows that there are industrialists in this country like the Tatas who did not find it necessary to avoid paying customs duties, taxes and excise to do business. And come on, importing machinery under the guise of spare parts and putting up a factory! I cannot respect anyone like that. And if you don’t like the main character it is difficult to stay with the movie.
Worse, the director makes full use of his poetic license as a director to tell us that Guru made millions for his shareholders and that is why his wrongdoings should be excused! A classic tale of means justifying the end. Another silly bit of spiel the director wanted us to believe – a ruthless businessman obsessed with making money doing it for his shareholders? Mani Ratnam, you are insulting our intelligence.
Sets
The sets were amazingly good. Whether the spice market of Turkey or the textile markets of Bombay, it was all brought alive by Ratnam.
Acting
Abhishek is a believable Dhirubhai and this is one of his best performances to date. Aishwarya is alright too, very natural and comfortable in her interactions with Abhishek. Mithun Charkraborty plays the newspaper publisher who tries to expose the murky dealings of Guru with a persistent newspaper campaign quite well. As for Vidya Balan (she is a sufferer of multiple sclerosis) who plays the daughter (grand-daughter?) of the newspaper mogul and someone who Guru looks upon as his sister, I wondered why she needed to be in the film. True, she did a great job of bringing pathos into the film and made an impact…but the film could have done without her. It was clear that the director was trying to show us Guru’s soft side, but we already know he has a soft side. He is desperately in love with his wife.
Another actor who did good was Rajendra Gupta – he plays Guru’s harsh and very strict father.
Entertainment value?
So did the movie have any value at all? Well, it was slow in parts and I get bored quickly. But I liked the love part. It was a love story…and even though Guru takes a dowry to marry, he does fall in love. He and his beautiful Sujata (Aishwarya Rai) are shown to be deeply in love and their love story is moving and sweet.
Everyone is saying that this movie is not as good as the rest of Mani Ratnam’s movies…but I have not seen any of his movies except for Roja. Well, Roja was better than Guru.

(Photo sourced from Sulekha)