Guru bhai- The New Revolution?

Little Bachchan is again walking into the footsteps of his father. He puts on the accent, the countenance and the attire. The concoction works, though he has treaded the line toeing away from Big B often over an array of movies, including the latest Umrao Jaan and Dhoom 2, not finding too much success. Appearing for the second time in a Mani Ratnam movie (after Yuva), Abhishek portrays one of the most convincing characters of his career.

As for Mani Ratnam, long after Yuva, he strikes Bollywood again with Guru, a veiled biography of India’s foremost entrepreneur who displayed a spectacular rise in a short span of time. Though such life stories haven’t generated much interest in the audience in the past, Mani’s style of storytelling is perfect - with impressive cinematography by Rajiv Menon, music by A R Rahman and wonderful lyrics by Gulzar.

Guru- the rags to riches story of Gurukant Desai is based on the story of Reliance Industries founder Dhirubhai Ambani, though that fact doesn’t find mention anywhere. Like Gurubhai in the film, Dhirubhai came from a small village in Gujarat, was a person of humble means who started from scratch; he was the son of a schoolteacher, worked at an oil-filling station for Shell and created a business out of polyester on returning to India. He is also finally struck by a paralytic stroke while he tries to battle legal hassles over his business.



Wherever there is success, there are detractors. The press questions Guru’s success, his rivals- who have taken decades to achieve what he did in a few years- try to buy him, and then there is the judiciary, with charges against his business. The last sequence is a bit unconvincing, with Guru delivering a monologue in front of the jury, justifying his working style. That wasn’t really needed, since only two of the charges levelled against him are proved true. For the rest of the movie, Guru subtly shows shades of gray, being the staunch businessman- marrying for money, partnering for money and even corrupting people to achieve his business goals. He almost transforms himself into a hero in the end.

The story that centres around a single character is unconventional in its own way, despite the standard elements of romance, dance and music thrown in without disturbing the plot. That could be one reason to count if the film doesn’t attain commercial success. There have been questions about the Abhishek-Aishwarya chemistry. Those again remain unanswered, since the screenplay develops such perfect characters that the actors don’t have to strive too hard. Vidya Balan, Mithun Chakraborty and R Madhavan are the surprise packages of the movie, presenting a bunch of talented actors together. Mallika Sherawat too does a cameo in the song Mayya Mayya.

Watch it for Mani Ratnam- if not anything else.