Jan 15, 2007 12:53 PM
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GURU: A GREAT FILM
What a relief it is to see some serious cinema – based on the life of India’s best known business tycoon – rather than the gangster movies or remakes that flood the market today. Guru is made in the tradition of Hollywood: the subject matter is awesome, the stars are wonderful and above all, there is a message in the movie. The way Guru is mounted does not seem to be a Hindi movie.
The canvas is quite wide and the movie covers it all. It is a history of India’s economic reform or lack of it, of corrupt bureaucrats that dictate terms to businesses, preventing them from becoming world class. It is a comment on our socialist past, in which a government actually penalizes companies for producing more than they are licensed to. It is also a comment on the Indian character, which pulls down anyone who tries to get ahead; of small men running newspapers that are not able to see which side is bad. And it is a comment on the hollow claims of the government in which all the socialist nonsense is shown to be nothing but a means to extract bribes from businessmen.
To see one man fight it all is quite something. More so because everything has a ring of truth about it. The film combines all the folklore and fact of India’s largest private sector company to present a man ruthless in business but soft at heart. Anyone who wants to understand how this country has been ruined by politicians and their cohorts, the bureaucrats, must watch this film. And there is a message as well for anyone dreaming big: never hear the word ‘no’.
Abhishek Bachchan shows that he is an able successor to his father, while Aishwarya Rai establishes her supremacy over the medium. She shows her talents with finesse, and even though she is a support to the main character, she justifies herself very well indeed. The sets and the acting are superb. Even Madhavan, the actor playing the reporter shows the swagger and smugness that we have seen in journalists. The trouble is with the music: there are no hum-able songs though they are filmed well. But so intense is the acting that the songs appear as irritants.
There are some weak spots in the film. The relation of the journalist with the pretty girl who has multiple sclerosis is useless in the scheme of things and does not add anything to the story. The owner of the newspaper, played well by Mithun Chakraborty, does not show the petty-mindedness of the newspaper magnate adequately, hell bent on destroying the industrialist. Also, the initial struggle of the tycoon is not portrayed well enough and the movie glosses over very quickly over that part of his life.
But these are minor drawbacks, I feel. The film works and succeeds in gluing you to your seat. It is a must see for anyone trying to learn anything about our history and how it was considered to be so bad to be rich. The industrialist is seen as a villain who corrupts but the real villain is the political system that created the restrictive laws in the first place. A person who produces more cloth than he has permission to, actually has everyone on his back like a pack of dogs, as if he has committed a murder. Yet, it is these men we remember today as architects of modern India.
Heave a sigh of relief that you own the shares of some companies and be proud to be associated with such great men whose efforts have made us so proud.
Watching Guru, one feels that Indian cinema has come of age. Now our directors can tackle tricky subjects and need not be stuck in the song, romance and crime routine that they love to show us. It is time skilful directors showed us real life heroes, people who have transformed our country.
