GURU didn't ultimately land up to be GURU at all !. Review on Guru (2007)

LYRICS:Firstly, it is yet another high quality song written by Gulzar sahib. Very seldom do I see that he writes something however ordinarily that doesn’t become extra ordinary. But the irony of the story is with the wide variety of hooligans, insensible and unpoetic public we have in India, his meaningful poetry always goes under stated and under spoken. Beedi jalai le, kajra re and the sorts have become a nation wide dance and sex symbol, but how many knows it is a creation of Gulzar! Who does have the time to go through the individual words he has selected in them!

That’s a matter of pity and to be badly felt for. Gulzar has given some outstanding and unforgettable numbers to the Hindi cinema, and it is appreciable that how beautifully he has molded himself into the current scenario. His songs are so real, touching, eye watering, passionate, sensible, and evocative, that I need a dictionary for related adverbs. In a single sentence, in GURU as well he has proven that even if he is growing old day by day and has his body weaken, his poetry is as young as a newly laid chicken. I would give nothing less than 10 out of 10!!!

MUSIC:It’s A.R. Rahman again and obviously it had to be a grand show of Indian classical and western classical orchestration. It looks that he keeps the soul of his compositions similar, only does he change the face of each song. Only thing I felt was he used too much of loud instrumentation, could be good for shaking a leg, but it is at times unpleasant for ears. The words spoken by the singer were neither audible nor were they legible. A good music listener can have this much trust on Rahman sahib, as he is possibly one of the remaining hopes of Indian Film music, after the legends left the battle field. As far as the rest are concerned, I don’t really find any difference between road side hawkers and them, who shout at their top most volumes to mark their presence amongst rest, and sell their product. Music is no more a piece of art work, but only a collage of yester years’ music magicians! Are the maliks and reshamiyas listening!!! I would satisfactorily give 9 out of 10!!!

EDITION:Not really great. At times it looks to be a trailer more than a movie. Everything seems to be happening all of a sudden. The movie begins when Abhishek delivers a dialog, in between of which the movie screen would become black, which for the audiences would due to load shedding. I am still not sure whether it was a special effect or really a load shedding! Here however, I found the story telling capacity was not as special and as sound as it has always been. The change over of the scenes is not impressive at all. 5 out 10 is what I would recommend.

PERFORMANCE:Abhishek Bachchan: If Abhishek could get the greatest chance somewhere to prove his acting skills, it was this movie. Unfortunately enough, he did not cash upon it. He has always looked to be more capable of what he has done in the movie. For every scene one would remember of Amitabh Bachchan, at least I did, that his father would have done far better in the role. Possibly, Amitabh Bachchan is still such a big name in the Mumbai film scenario, that Abhishek needs to perform hell out of himself just to reach somewhere around his father. Specially, the concluding scene where Abhishek had to prove himself innocent, where he had a world greatest opportunity to impress the critics. He had himself to talk about everything on a big arena.

But his speech was not impressive at all. One could compare the same scene with the one in the movie Main Azad Hoon where his father was into a similar situation. Why only his father, remember the concluding poem by Shahrukh Khan in Veer Zaara! They were the performances which is liked and remembered by audiences till now. Abhishek was also expected of a similar sort of explosive and high voltage expressions where he failed. I would give 7 out of 10!!!

Mithun Chakraborty: Mithun proved that he was awarded with a national award in his debit movie in Bengali. Such a great depth in the character. It was a painful expression of affection and anger given by Mithun. He should try such type of roles more often. He ornamented the bit of role he was assigned by his experience. I will give him 10 out of 10.

Aishwarya Rai: She too had limited scope in the movie, but showed her capacities well enough. She was not only running around with Abhishek but had an important contribution. Her world liked eyes helped her in her expressions. She is definitely an actress who is capable of going distances. Only she needs to make her choice sensibly.

Vidya Balan: I didn’t really understand her contribution in the story. Anybody on this earth could do the work, but why did was she particularly chosen for it? The caliber of Vidya totally goes in vain. Those who enjoyed the smooch she and Madhavan shared seemed to be forcibly put into the script to make it a commercial drama. I think the directors nowadays only consider smooching to be the only way one could say he or she loves.  If that was to be true, then what kind of relation will be between Sanjeev Kumar and Jaya Bhaduri in Koshish called? Vidya must be much more sensible and careful about her movie selection. She looked otherwise, as she is, very pretty and presentable. I will give 2 out of 10, that too because it was her, otherwise I would have given a NULL!!

DIALOG:The story would have been greatly supported by fiery dialogues that could blow up the audiences. The audiences were seldom forced to put their hands together applauding the statements. The background music score really goes contrast to the quality of dialogues. It clearly lacked a thrust. If anybody has seen movies like Arjun, Ghayal, Ghatak, Damini where in Sunny Deol had blasted the audiences with his electric dialogues, then he would really be able to tell you the difference.

STORY:A nice story with a backbone less script let the entire show upside down. The directory must not have worked on the story and script much. Or may be he was in too much hurry that flawless movie was not what generated ultimately.

VIDEOGRAPHY:Being a Mani Ratnam product, it had to have glorious picturization of the native India. The story is framed in the post independence of India, so it was important to give the look of a rural India. It had it all, from dresses to the car types, the buildings and a brownish videography that gave the feeling of being in India in the 60-70s. It was impressive as expected. 8-9 out of 10 is really what the movie deserves, as far as the quality photography is concerned.

OVERALL POSITIVES:(1) Great music Great lyrics Great photography. (2) Some outstanding performances. (3) Touching scenes – some in high spirits and some gloomy. (4) Story Background score. (5) Mithun Chakraborty. (6) Aishwarya.

OVERALL NEGATIVES:(1) Dialogues – Must have exploded the audience. (2)  Abhsihek Bachchan – Needs to grow up as an actor, still is looking learner. (3) Vidya Balan – Must not waste the caliber. (3) Sachin Khedekar – Being wasted with too a short role. (4) Unnecessary love story of Vidya Balan and R.Madhavan. (5) In the concluding scene, Abhsihek was actually not as convincing as he wanted to look, or the director wanted him to be, or the director thought he was!!!