Guru is Mani Ratnam's latest venture after Yuva, a film I loved much more than the somewhat muddled Rang De Basanti. Expectations are high with any film from Mani and this is an unacknowledged biography of one of the country's giants, Dhirubhai Ambani. I am forced to ask several questions: 1. Is Mani becoming cynical due to the lack of commercial success for his films? 2. Is the route to success to stack up the stars, and employ the conventional masala? 3. Where is the objectivity one expects from Mani? We saw him take no sides in the conflict shown in Dil se but here he is not sitting on the fence at all, making this an "official" biography.

Why was Abhishek Bachchan chosen to play the role of Gurukant Desai? Did he match the physicality of Ambani? There are a very few moments when Abhishek does shine but mostly he leaves one uninvolved and uninterested. He caricatures the role, channels his dad in the angry moments and is a little too youthful in experience to get into the meat of this role. I would rather see him do another Yuva where I think he was probably the best he has ever been. Aishwarya is OK as Shanti, she is a sidelined character, the hand-holding wife. Her simplicity works in the film to keep her deglamorized. But why is she still reed slim after having two babies while Abhishek puts on more and more weight? And her dancing - can someone please tell her that swaying about in a reptilian fashion is not very attractive? The lead pair have zero chemistry - it is fine on his side, he did marry her for money, but there is not much at the other end either. Madhavan is much more real as the tenacious reporter, this young man has ample charm and talent. Vidya has nothing to do and does it while still looking very cute and managing to steal into our hearts. Her disease progresses in an alarming and unbelievable fashion - can someone tell the Hindi film industry to seek medical advice before concocting ailments? Roshan Seth is laughable as the panel head - like the old courtroom judges of the 70s. That brings me to the one reason to watch Guru. Watch Guru to see Mithun turn out an amazing performance - nuanced, powerful and towering above the rest of the cast. Maybe Mani should have cast Mithun as Gurubhai! Mallika in the Maiyya Maiyya number was sizzling - the character was clearly an item girl but of course Mani cannot stoop to such low class selling tactics so she had 30 more seconds after her dance.

Now let us get to the music. One always expects an outstanding musical score in a Mani film - it is hard to forget the scores of Roja, Bombay, Yuva and above all of Dil se. But here the Mani and A R Rehman combo is unable to weave much magic. Ai Hairathe is beautiful, I like Maiyya Maiyya for its unusual sounds and the lines - Tu Dheere Dheere Khena Dariya Na Chalke, but the rest is most pedestrian. I hated Barso re in the film, Ek lo Ek Muft was laughable, and there was nothing else of note other than the fact that the music did not integrate well into the film. By the way - Abhishek danced like he was being periodically prodded by a cattle prod.

But by putting all these elements together Mani did get a hit film - so I guess he made the right call. Done that - now can someone please ask him to go back to making movies with soul like Bombay and heart like Dil se?