Apr 05, 2007 01:24 PM
5089 Views
Before the long weekend, here’s yet another review on a movie which I distinctly enjoyed in parts.
Guruis a simple movie, the second half of which makes you feel that Mani Ratnam lost his script and thus, made a hash of it. The first half is excellent, the role of Mallika Sherawat as a belly-dancer notwithstanding, and it’s extremely refreshing to see Bollywood churn out a movie which is biographical in nature, and yet does not paint the protagonist in constantshades of white. There is no born angel who is turned into a mafia don by the society or the good soul who is an honest do-gooder, the kind that’s never born on earth. Guru is about some true incidents, some people who existed in flesh and blood and does a good job of telling a story.
Gurukant Desai, modeled on the late Dhirubhai Ambani, is an entrepreneur. Given that, he is quite unapologetic about that. The first half shows the character growing up in a small town, growing up with dreams, and beautifully shows the transition from that to a person who has pursued them and is halfway down the road to fulfilling them. The cinematography and the screenplay are both excellent all through this first half, with certain scenes that stay with you long after you have left the theater, Guru shaking a few shells in his hand, with one of the mosques of Istanbul in the background; Guru climbing the stairs to the top of a temple with his future brother-in-law; and the scene in which Guru and his wife have a fight, and are standing on either side of the road as a tram passes by right between them capturing the poignancy of the moment superbly.
The second half shows Guru becoming the owner of India’s largest company, not always following the law and not always acting scrupulously. A newspaper editor is out to get him, and Guru with absolutely no qualms whatsoever, hires another editor, Shyam Saxena, who in turn is equally ruthless and uses distorted versions of the actual truth to pursue his own personal vendetta against the protagonist. It’s here that the second half quickly degenerates into somewhat meaningless cinema, prominent with hamming, needless melodrama and quick-fix solutions. There is an entirely avoidable song, a totally unnecessary character by the name ofMeenu, apparently to showcase the softer side of the protagonist, and a speech at the end of it all which has so much hamming in it, that you are left tearing off your little remaining hair wondering why a movie that promised such a lot with such an engaging first half had to degenerate such rapidly and revert back to the same old corny dialogue that Bollywood pulp movies are so famous for, with Guru going so far as to compare himself to the Mahatma. Even so, there is a saving grace in the cinematography, which remains excellent throughout, and the scene of an aged Guru laying with his wife on a bed in the small house an aching reminder of where it all started. There are a few other poignant scenes which stay in your mind, like the one in which the taxi driver tells Gurukant that he couldn’t have done wrong, since after all, he did get three of his daughter’s married by selling the shares of his company, and transition of their board meetings which used to be held in small maidans, and later, towards the end of the movie, in a huge cricketing stadium.
A special note about the performances. They are excellent. For once, Aishwarya Rai, playing Guru’s wife, does not shed bucket-loads of tears, every time something goes wrong. An admirably restrained performance from her. Abhishek delivers a power-packed performance, but his sudden urges to speak like a cross between Marlon Brando in Godfather and Al Pacino, tends to leave a bad taste in the mouth. Mithun plays a wonderful role as the only upright editor who dares to oppose the entrepreneur, and modeling himself on R P Goenka, he delivers a scintillating performance. Madhavan also plays the role of Shyam Saxena with a great deal of aplomb. The whole support cast does not do too badly either. The cinematography by Rajeev Menon, in one word, is excellent. And A R Rehman, though he seems well past his prime, does give some music which tends to stay with you days after you have left the theater.
All in all, Guru is definitely worth a watch. It’s just that, you should not expect too much from the second-half of the movie.
