Mani Ratnam's Guru.

I had liked the performance of Abhishek Bachchan in Yuva  and that was Mani Ratnam's movie. That was the first movie when Abhishek  for the first time had acted well. But from the trailers of Guru and knowing that the movie is inspired from Dhirubhai Ambani  the biggest industrialist, I was not sure whether Mani would be able to do justice to this story with Abhishek as lead. With this doubt I had gone to see the movie.

I am a Gujarati  and the character is from Gujarat, which made a basic connection with me. The movie tells the story of Guru (from Dhiru) a small village boy who is not able to pass his school exams and goes for a job to Turkey. In a short time he gets salary hike and promotion  and it is then when he decides to come back to India; telling himself and others that "If his work is good why he should work for someone else and why not for him own business". With all challenges surrounding him to stop him to become a business  but with his zeal, energy and self belief Guru goes ahead to become a small trader in Bombay and accomplishes becoming one of the biggest company in India. Through this journey he is accompanied by  in supporting or challenging him  his friends, family and wife; and in a special role Gandhian editor  Mithun Chakrawarty.

All credit to Mani Ratnam and Abhishek Bachchan to bring the role alive on screen. Abhishek brings the required energy, poise, body language and expression to suit each stage of his life's journey. Ashwarya as Abhishek's wife performs suiting the role  my only comment is she has become like a skeleton (what has she been doing with her body  starving to death?). Except the first couple of scenes where Mithun does not fit properly with the get-up; after that he has performed brilliantly. A good break for him after a long time! Madhavan as the upright reporter on a vengeance to expose the corrupt rise of Abhishek has perform well.

The movie is fast paced till the interval, but slows down in the second half. Mani Ratnam unnecessary tries to give some extra footage to Madhavan and his love story with Vidhya Balan. A totally waste of time and lost of pace! Also he could had made the editor do a better job in the second half, with some extra punching sequences of Abhishek's fight back from paralysis. I would like to make a special mention of Mallika Sherawat who looks gorgeous in the Turkish item number and Roshan Sheth as the Head of Commission prosecuting Abhishek. Roshan Sheth leaves his mark on a role tailor made for him.

All the songs in the movie are good. A.R.Rahman's music is brilliant as usual.

Mani Ratnam should get away with his proto-type heroine entry song  that reminisces of Roja song. Also the back drop of Gujarat is visibly shot in South India. The movie is perceived at the right timing during India's emergence as growing economy.

Overall good movie. (7 Stars)