Guru starts by dazzling with its starcast, its brilliant director-music director combo and amazing cinematography not necessarily in that order. But retrospect doesn't treat the movie that kindly.

Personally,the high point of the movie was Menon's handling of the camera. Every frame of the movie is desktop-wallpaper friendly. And though that might not be good for every kind of movie, Guru with its semi-period film setting and scope of locations deserved Menon's touch.

Maniratnam as usual handles his subject and his actors with consummate ease though the pace of scenes where he builds his characters too fast or truncated. A.R. Rahman is brilliant by the non-intrusiveness of his music. The Guru chant that follows Gurukant Desai around might be very Bollywoodish but hey! this IS Bollywood.

Abhishek and Mithun Chakraborty deliver the best performances in the movie. If Mithun had been given any more screen space than he was, he could've easily overshadowed Abhishek. Manikdas Gupta has... well...more character than Gurukant Desai.

Aishwarya as usual is a huge letdown and a liability throughout the movie but her saving grace is her reasonable performance during the Trial scene. She manages to put herself in the center of every frame and refuses to look old at 50. When will she realise that acting doesn't mean that every frame needs to look like an Aishwarya Poster or desktop wallpaper? Madhavan and Balan are obviously wasted as characters with Madhavan delivering a sterling performance but summarily dismissed during the movie.

As for the message, the less said the better. There are a few jarring moments when Maniratnam goes over the top trying to project Guru who is obviously a marketplace villain as a person who deserves what he wants. Whoever from India will believe that a Taxi-Driver is so knowledgeable about personal finance that he invests enough to marry off three daughters with "Shakti" shares? Indians who invest in shares (especially during the time the trial is set in) can hardly be the "Aam Aadmi" that Guru claims to love and serve. And on the contrary, IAS/IPS officers who Guru accuses as the self-serving elite are usually the ones who're from middle-class "Aam Aadmi" families.

On the whole an enjoyable movie especially the spine-tingling scenes where Guru triumphs. The movie is all the more enjoyable if you're familiar with the real life story( Irrespective of his claims Guru is definitely based on the tycoon). You go home thinking you'll need to think about the movie but you don't. The movie doesn't deserve THAT much.