After a million comparisons with his over-successful dad- the BIG’B’ and yet another million not-so-good movie(s), the Chotta-B delivers his mettle in Mani Ratnam’s popcorn flick - **GURU.
*The movie gathers no moss in arriving at its central plot- The rise of optimistic and confident GURUkanth Desai(Abhishek) who inevitably is the protagonist with deep rooted desire to rise to the top and do some bijiness despite his father’s warnings that it would only take him to the dogs. His confidence and panache is revealed through his charming moves where he wins the hearts of Aishwarya, her dad, Ash’s brother and of course the audience(You’ll have to see the movie for how) and sets on with his bijiness to the land of opportunities- Mumbai. Bijiness starts with using the money earned in dowry as the intial investment for his textile industry .
Time, fate and destiny have their own roles to play and the woes of any yeoman ignorant about the robust and obtrusive world where one-upmanship over the other is thought to be more valuable than focussing on just self-growth is revealed . Doors of hope open with the entry of apna-favourite-hero -NANA(mithun) who lives a modern Gandhi of khadi and anti-corruption through his daily newspaper-’THE INDEPENDENT’.
The philum gains impetus now depicting Guru’s parvenu with a series of upheavals with clashes against various obstacles, the ones worth mentioning are -
-The contractor who denies his licence at the onset of his business and also how he tries to buy Guru when he is at the peak of his career. Both are totally different scenes but against the same guy and you cannot stop smiling as Guru literally throws him out of business with the same paper(The Independent) that later led to his cataclysm in the downward direction.
-His dialogue-delivery when he clashes with our revered’nana’ when he(’nana’) thought that Guru misused his(nana’s) press for his selfish needs. "mujhe koi nahi rok payega. na yeh(pointing at Madhavan), na yeh ( the paper), na aap (pointing at nana himself) aur na aapku khadi kii fauj". This is what makes hindi movies a total paisa-vasool and the crowd cant stop whistling till the scene changes.It also creates new animosity between our hero- guru and apna-fav-hero mithun and his reporter- Madhavan, who is dragged into the plot almost suddenly to act as another hindrance .
-The final clash against the sarkari babus who catch his neck after the whistle is blown by the press(Madhavan) about his unconscionable deeds, a few of which included the use of clout and politicians to set up newer industries( cloth and then petroleum), the increase of capital inflows by converting all the money invested by various people to SHARES , false FDI form fake foreign industries that never existed, wrong quotations, unethical dealings. and so on and so forth. Yet something that keeps us audience believe that ethics has not been sacrificed for completely is when Abhishek(I chose his name over GURU cause now he really delivers the USP) justifies his actions in the penultimate speech where he quotes about Gandhiji, his sacrifices and the hit line- "maine yeh 30 crore kamaya tho sirf mere liye hi nahi balki who saare logon ke liye bhi jo mere shakti parivaar ke hai" which translated just means that I did it not just for me but for all the thirty crore people who have trusted and invested in my company.(SO punish them all!ha!). the crowd is happy.
abhishek(and guru) are both absolved with paltry fines. curtain falls . again. paisa-vasool
Madhavan as a challenger, Vidya Balan for camaraderie , Mithun for his petulage, guardianship and values and to some extent even Aishwarya as a companion and love of life, all act as succint fillers preventing a vegetate and monotonous atmosphere which would otherwise have ended the movie pretty quickly. I seriously feel we could have done without all of them and stil got a helluva block buster.well almost! These were the positive fillers.
As negative fillers to literally kill time were a series of songs linked to the plot neither in choreography nor lyrics nor costume which by the end of it reached the brim of getting me irritated. I literally survived through it.
To sum it all up. A one-time MUST SEE. it could definitely inspire you to dream on to greater heights.Aish looks hot and the onscreen chemistry with Abhishek is worth eulogies. Mani Ratnam has created magic again.Abhishek has grown up.and how in the hell did Abhishek put on weight for Guru and lose it for Dhoom-2 so soon.? any replies.