I went into the theatre expecting something groundbreaking like Bombay, Yuva and the likes ..well I had all the reasons for it .Very rarely in Bollywood do you have a great director , a fabulous cast and a good storyline.Yet I came out with a feeling of incompleteness.No doubt this was a hugely better flick than the recent Bollywood dishouts, yet something was amiss.
The story was good but I believe that a lot more could have been done to justify the character.Gurubhai is accused of illelegal exports , owning land illegally and a myriad of other things however the film does not make a sincere effort to answer these issues.So what do we get at the end of it all..a great speech (much in line with the "India Rising" fever that is spreading across the country-much like dengue:)-great locations, good costumes and heroworshipping crowds for whom it is allright to worship a man regardless of his legal standing.
Honestly , I do not watch many Bollywood movies..mostly because I know what the story line is going to be like .This was different -I admit- but it seems that Maniratnam was following Gurubhai’s advice-PROFIT IS EVERYTHING