Jan 18, 2007 02:54 AM
1695 Views
Let me be frank I had no intention of watching this movie, the only reason I watched this movie was because my family dragged me to it. I am very apprehensive about watching dramas **and ever since Mani Ratnam denied that this movie is based on Dhirubhai Ambani and named the character Guru I was sure I wasn't going to watch this film.
*The movie starts out OK enough, 15 mins into the movie you that Mani was lying and this movie is in fact completely based on Dhirubhai's life.
The movie shows early signs of trying to be a formula flick though, WTF is an item-number doing in this film. Nevermind that, to add to itwe have the signature Mani Ratnam entry for the heroine with the song and dance(think Roja) and that to within 5-10 mins of the item-number what the hell.
Still the first half entertains certain parts of his life have been whitewashed and modified to avoid lawsuits. For example Dhirubhai by his own admission made his fortune in Aden, Yemen not in the spice market but by smuggling Yemeni coins that contained silver at that time, he claims he made lakhs but came back to India with only 15, 000(did he use that money to bribe or blew it up god knows).
*Anyway the movie moves at a fast pace and even though you know the eventual outcome you want Guru to succeed and thats the biggest victory for the movie in the first half.
You are willing to forget the songs, and the whitewashed storyline(maybe he did it because there was probably no way he could have used Dhiru's real name and shown anything but Superman, hence the change of minor details).
*You give him the benefit of the doubt and instead go with the flow of the movie, wishing from your heart that Guru wins.
But the second half is a different ballgame. You are suddenly distracted by a f##$ing Love Story involving the side characters(as if the extra-sweet and obviously fictitious scenes between Abhishek and Ash weren't enough).
So here we have a man struggling with morality, on war with his godfather and in the middle of it we have two minor characters kissing in the rain .
And how is this scene important to the movie?
To add to that you have couple of more songs, by the end of it, the supposedly most stirring scene of the movie, towards the end, ends up nothing more than a damp squib.
You can literally feel the pulse of the audience dip after every song in the second half(which are far from good anyway what happened Mr. Rahman). A lot of the good done in the first half is washed away by the end of the movie.
The acting of the movie is great throughout.Abhishek Bachan as expected steals the show and this is completely his movie and probably the first time he has carried an entire movie on his shoulders, hats of to him.
On the other hand Ash did an ordinary job somehow she is not able to strike a chord with the audience,maybe be the fantastic acting all around her had something to do with it.
Mithun was also brilliant giving a stellar performance as the powerful, idealistic yet humble publisher. Its great that he has decided to return to A-list films, we need other great actors of yesteryear's to come forward do roles that suit their age.
*Technically the film was nothing special(wasn't required anyway) yet the direction, cinematography etc met the standards of an A-list film.
Another glaring flaw of the movie was that even though we spent 3 hours with the character we were still shown only a whitewashed uni-dimensional character,the fact that Guru was ruthless and corrupt and often put portrayed that he was doing things for the public good but instead did it mainly for his own(anyone who's owned a reliance will know what I'm talking about he-he).
His corrupt practices we mentioned but in a passing manner inter-spread with the hyper-annoying love story. I mean we love the guy and we're not going to stop loving him just because you show us his other side, no ones perfect, it didn't make sense to only mention his malpractices and then not show us that element of his character.
However the most enduring fact about the movie is that At least ITS FULLY ORIGINAL, no rehash of dozen English and Hindi movies here. Indian Cinema is at a loss for ideas and any movie with this amount of originality gets great bonus points for attempt **I may not appreciate biopics in general but I really appreciated the originality.
In all a good ORIGINAL movie that looses out in the second half but is worth watching if your looking for some family entertainment. Not the kind of movie you want to see with your friends(if you don't like such movies/Hindi movies etc allow yourself to be forced for this one, use the credit to get yourself out of watching movies like Ankahee).
-s **uni-dimensional portrayal, boring second half, distracting and ordinary songs(at best), unnecessary side love story(atleast no songs).
+/-s Ash(i feel shes better of getting married and claiming she left on top), Abisheks good but round the clock publicity and announcement of marriage etc I've already overdosed.
+s **super acting all around, Abhishek B, FINALLY AN ORIGINAL FILM, meets industry standards(techinically), many moments mainly in the first half that connect you to the movie.
total 7+1/10(the one is for the original attempt in absolute terms this movie is more of seven, this movie will be better remembered for the marriage announcement and the fact that Abhishek proved his mettle, than for the movie itself).
