Jan 18, 2007 12:42 AM
1279 Views
Business is not a playground for children. Mani Ratnam has successfully
re iterated this fact in his latest venture-Guru.Gurukant Desai (Abhishek Bachhan) is a small town gujrati man who after failing to pass his boards after several attempts goes to Turkey
to pursue a career in delivering petrol cans!! After a few years he decided to
come back to his native country and start his own business coz he believed that
was what he was destined to do. Sujata(Aishwarya) is his best friends elder sister. He marries
her as her father is unable to give a dowry and makes her brother (his friend)
his 50% partner in business. they come to Mumbai and start their own trading.
Here too he is met by opposition and hostility which he overcomes with élan which
in turn makes him a hero overnight amongst the trading community.
Thus, his journey begins. He gains success fast, a bit too fast for his jealous
competitors who try to buy him off but unfortunately for them he retaliates by
spreading falls allegations(hey I didn’t say he was an honest guy!!) with the
help of Manik Das’s(Mithun Chakravorty)
independent newspaper. After this incident Mithun becomes his enemy as he felt
that Guru used his paper as a weapon to get back at his enemies unjustly. So he
in turn launches a crusade against him to expose him in front of the
world.Phew!! R u with me so far?? Good. But I better stop now coz otherwise I’ll
leave practically nothing else for u to find out. So ill just conclude by
saying that Madhavan in a reporter working for Mithun and Vidya Balan is Mithun’s
granddaughter.
The eventsare so well placed that u hardly realized that 2hrs have passed till u reach
the interval. Till thelast half hour u hardly notice the time. I personally felt the last half hour
was a bit stretched. Even the scenes where Guru makes his speech in front of
the Judiciary, did not give a ‘heart thumping, veins throbbing’ feel! But hey
Mani is just human. He nevertheless did a terrific job that too on such a
complicated story. The nitty gritties of business dealings were very well portrayed
in quite a simplified manner. what more could one ask for! Needless to say acting by all(including Aishwarya)is superb.
Settingstoo are very authentic and gives a feel of that era (1951-1970).Apart from *dum
dara* and *barso re *the rest of the songs r not that good. Cinematography is
wonderful. All in all a wonderful family drama which has been very well executed onto celluloid. Kudos
to Mani Ratnam!!
