The story, as much as there is of it, is about how a villager from Gujarat dreams of creating an industrial empire and how he runs afoul of socialist anti-business Indian laws in the 70s. A lot can be done with a meaty theme like this one, but Mani Ratnam fails miserably. The first half is taken up with setting all the characters up, an item number to satiate the front-benchers (and most of the us as well ;)), and the lead romance. Perhaps these are required to draw Indian audiences in, but to me, the first half dragged a lot.
I have watched hundreds of movies with similar romancing (HDDCS for example has very similar playful romance). The item number is sumptuous, but it only lasts about 3-4 minutes, which doesn’t make up for the rest of the first half. There is also a pointless side-story about a handicapped girl. I don’t know if she is supposed to represent the courage to live your life fully regardless of obstacles, but it didn’t impress upon me in that manner. The second half has a whiff of conflict as the lead willy-nilly breaks the people’s laws in democratic India to create an industrial empire and is criticized and punished for it.
A lot of pointless running around and weeping later, the lead delivers a powerful speech where he claims one has to break the laws to build the country’s industry, or because one is ignorant of the laws in the first place. I am with the idea that laws that hold industry back should be "changed" by changing public opinion and consequently influencing Parliament, but to break them can lead to anarchy and non-accountability. After all, we have laws for a certain purpose. The final speech is the only scene that feels worthy of a Mani Ratnam endeavor, but the rest of the film is storyless, pointless fluff that I entertains somewhat, but didn’t engage me much as a jaded Hindi movie viewer.
The performances of the lead characters are good, Abhishek is good though monotonous, and he plays his part well, especially in the speech scenes. Aishwarya is fine, though it didn’t feel like she had anything significant to do. She is very appealing in the bedroom play scenes. Vidya Balan and Madhavan are sideshows unfortunately, and aren’t given much to work with. I would have loved to see the socialist perspective on the conflict presented in more depth, rather than the one-sided perspective we got. I put that down to this movie being a biopic.
Overall, the movie disappointed me with its one-track story, or rather lack thereof. Most of it was taken up with pointless drivel about Aish and Abhi’s romance, and the central conflict felt vague and underpresented. I was expecting Mani Ratnam, and I got mediocrity.