It was a Maniratnam movie and I was not gonna wait for the weekend to watch it. One day of less contribution at work and I was off to the Multiplex with couple of other colleagues to watch the movie. Having to wait for the show to begin, for over one and a half hours did not seem that big a pain. The excitement and anticipation of watching a new(Mani) movie was good enough to kill any frustration that I had to go through.
Despite being an ardent Mani fan, I've tried being a just judge, making a conscious attempt to avoid any gross prejudices and not just give blindly rave reviews :-)
"Idhar gaon"- Gujarat...starts the movie and from then starts an experience of 2.5 hrs that keeps the audience enraptured. Maniratnam, the taskmaster was once again in the thick of things, like in his earlier movies. The background score and the cinematography were most definitely the departments that are likely to enthrall audiences in the intial few minutes. Rajeev Menon and Rahman have been true and loyal sons to a highly respected godfather in Maniratnam. It's so unbelievable how Mani extracts the best out of the best.
The movie moves on as the Hero travels places from Gujarat to turkey as an ambitious boy and returns back as a youth after a few years of toiling in Turkey, to setup his own "bijhness". Abhishek Bachchan has been flawless and natural in his rustic accent and full marks to his commitment. It's paid him rich dividents. He marries his frnd's sister(Ash) for the huge investment that his frnd promises to make in his ambitious business plans. The couple head towards Mumbai along with the "bil in frnd". Tough time beckons the trio in Mumbai and 'Guru'(AB) is quite adept at overcoming small hiccups to setup his cloth business there. His frnd, a more naive and dumb fella, remaining a silent spectator of all this. Guru finds help from Mithun(editor of a Newspaper) to setup his store. How he grows from here, to owning the biggest company in India is the crux of the story. Meanwhile, his deceitful means to earn profit bring severe criticism from Mithun, who urges Madhavan(a reporter) to unveil Guru's true colour to the public. From buy back of shares to hoodwinking the customs from payin requisite import duty, Guru does it all and does it so smartly and effectively. Notwithstanding the severe flaking he receives from Mithun and his newspaper, Guru is unperturbed and grows to reach the pinnacle of success.
Now, by half time, the art direction in the movie had also flatterred me. It deserves a big applause for having taken the audiences 50 years back with sheer brilliance.
No Mani movie goes without a famous line and to me, the one dialogue just before the interval, when AB tells Madhavan "Guru bhai kho jeetna hai tho Guru bhai bhanke, magar Gurubhai ek hee hai" was the pick of the lot.. Rahman's BG score "Gurubhai gurubhai" during such scenes cause goosebumps all over the body.
As the movie draws to an end, One can't stop wondering about Mani's immaculate ability to blend fiction with true life(Dhirubhai) with such exemplary portrayals. He's proven to the country yet again why he's so special, incomparable and unparallelled. His portrayal of a bed room romance between AB and Aishwarya Rai deserves a special mention as it had the Maniratnam stamp all over it. One can't avoid seeing glimpses of Mani's earlier movie scenes in this one.
"Idhar gaon"- Gujarat...starts the movie and from then starts an experience of 2.5 hrs that keeps the audience enraptured. Maniratnam, the taskmaster was once again in the thick of things, like in his earlier movies. The background score and the cinematography were most definitely the departments that are likely to enthrall audiences in the intial few minutes. Rajeev Menon and Rahman have been true and loyal sons to a highly respected godfather in Maniratnam. It's so unbelievable how Mani extracts the best out of the best.
The movie moves on as the Hero travels places from Gujarat to turkey as an ambitious boy and returns back as a youth after a few years of toiling in Turkey, to setup his own "bijhness". Abhishek Bachchan has been flawless and natural in his rustic accent and full marks to his commitment. It's paid him rich dividents. He marries his frnd's sister(Ash) for the huge investment that his frnd promises to make in his ambitious business plans. The couple head towards Mumbai along with the "bil in frnd". Tough time beckons the trio in Mumbai and 'Guru'(AB) is quite adept at overcoming small hiccups to setup his cloth business there. His frnd, a more naive and dumb fella, remaining a silent spectator of all this. Guru finds help from Mithun(editor of a Newspaper) to setup his store. How he grows from here, to owning the biggest company in India is the crux of the story. Meanwhile, his deceitful means to earn profit bring severe criticism from Mithun, who urges Madhavan(a reporter) to unveil Guru's true colour to the public. From buy back of shares to hoodwinking the customs from payin requisite import duty, Guru does it all and does it so smartly and effectively. Notwithstanding the severe flaking he receives from Mithun and his newspaper, Guru is unperturbed and grows to reach the pinnacle of success.
Now, by half time, the art direction in the movie had also flatterred me. It deserves a big applause for having taken the audiences 50 years back with sheer brilliance.
No Mani movie goes without a famous line and to me, the one dialogue just before the interval, when AB tells Madhavan "Guru bhai kho jeetna hai tho Guru bhai bhanke, magar Gurubhai ek hee hai" was the pick of the lot.. Rahman's BG score "Gurubhai gurubhai" during such scenes cause goosebumps all over the body.
As the movie draws to an end, One can't stop wondering about Mani's immaculate ability to blend fiction with true life(Dhirubhai) with such exemplary portrayals. He's proven to the country yet again why he's so special, incomparable and unparallelled. His portrayal of a bed room romance between AB and Aishwarya Rai deserves a special mention as it had the Maniratnam stamp all over it. One can't avoid seeing glimpses of Mani's earlier movie scenes in this one.
AB in his old getup has tried to imitate Kamalhassan in "Nayagan". The scene where Ash and AB are lying down on the floor perpendicular to each other with their heads together, reminds me so much of a scene from Iruvar, where PrakashRaj and Tabu would be in similar positions.
As for the actors, AB was peerless, Ash was a major disappointment more with the way she looked than with her acting. Guys, We've got to digest the fact that ageing is very much applicable to the lovely ladies of tinseldom too :-). Mithun was good and couldnt have done any better. Madhavan does justice to his small role and plays it to perfection.
Now, to the most important section that Mani bashers would enjoy. A few glitches that I thought could have either been avoided or made better.
1.Vidya Balan's character had no significance in the movie and they could have easily done away with those portions and also the unwarranted liplock between maddy and Vidya. Commercialisation of movie must have been the only notion behind having that scene.
2.A song that follows right after the interval was out of place and didn't serve for anythin but stretch the length of the film
3.Mani with his exceptional screenplay generates a huge air of expectation for a fitting climax. I get more keen when AB satirically says "Is din khe liye bachake rakha tha" on wanting to speak during the public hearing a few hours before judgement on the cases against him, after having refused to speak on all previous private hearings. But, the climax did not sound convincing enough. It was more a brief narration of the entire film(his life) by AB to the counsel of judges, which is nothing more than stating the obvious to the audience.
The theme of the story is this: In a country where every proposal goes through a high degree of red tape bureaucracy, nepotism, bribery and poor governance, it seems all too fair if someone manages not just his own success but the successs of all his shareholders too, even if some basic guidelines are bypassed in the process.
Overall, a great picture and yet another Mani classic to watch out for !! Dont miss it.
3 comments:
"As for the actors, AB was peerless, Ash was a major disappointment more with the way she looked than with her acting.
She could never act... why even expect it out of her?
hehe..now her looks r gone with her age too :-)..why book her ? damn these film makers !! :-)
The Best review I ever read for GURU.. I guess you should have become a writer / Reporter or a novelist than glancing the network and C++ codes !
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