Guru - Villager, Visionary - Winner for sure on the celluloid!

Guru is about a middle class person who starts dreaming big and tries to make the impossible possible in his own way. He is a bold-decision maker, risk taker right from a very young age. When most people in the era think about making a secure job in a government with a minimum education required, Guru fights against the will of his father to start working in a far off land Turkey. From there starts the journey of Gurukanth Desai to Guru Bhai, from rages to riches, from a village to a big city and very truly, from a human to a visionary – fulfilling the dreams of thousands of people including him selves.

The fantastic thing about the movie is Manirathnam for sure. The story and screenplay are so good that you hardly notice the story moving away from the main path towards the end. The screen play is next top perfect with each character properly laid from their start to their end keeping in mind the progress they make in the story of the film while adding to it. Guru is among Mani’s better works for sure. Though you could wonder, why he hasn’t shown the negative shades of Guru’s character more prominently on screen, with the final output he has given, you actually give it loose eye.

As always Manirathnam-Rahman’s chemistry does wonders on the screen. The duo makes some trend setting films together and Guru stands out in them in recent past. Background score is beautifully done. Two of the songs – Jaage Hein and Ay Hairathe – are used as a back ground songs. Jaage Hein acts as the glue holding all the film together. Most of the songs take the story forward except for Ek lo Ek Muft. This number sung by Bappi Lahari and Chitra ji , in fact, downs the temp a bit. But having said that, the script is so well supported by the characters you can hardly notice it.

The peculiar characteristic of Mani’s characterization is the ability that he provides for actors to perform and excel in their roles. Each of the actors have been rightly chosen fitting into the character visualized. Mithun Chakraborty’s character of an honest editor bent to show-case truth and only truth to the public is very good. And Mithun gives a very good performance far way better than his previously when-did-it-release movie with Rahul Khanna and gang. Notable performances by Madhavan (as a reporter dead against the way things Gurukanth does) and Aishwarya Rai (as the wife of Guru) add to the screenplays presentation on the screen. Vidya Balan bags another good role, though the character could have been given more strength. Mallika sizzles, oozes beauty in her own way – That’s the usual Mallika for us!

And finally Abhishek Bachaan. His previous work with Mani – Yuva – was addressed as his best performance then. And Guru is going to cross that barrier by a huge margin. He literally brings live the character with his gestures and the honesty. Dawning a role that spans about 30 years is not easy for an actor. Abhishek shows he has grown out of the shoes of his father to stand on his own feet and perform such difficult task with ease and in such a way that you might actually wonder if it’s a completely Abhishek’s signature movie and not Mani’s. Such is the versatility shown by Abhishek and Guru is definitely going to be a great performances among the movies he has done till now and he would do in future.

Guru should stand out among the Indian films recently for the obvious reasons – Mani’s amazing work, Abhishek extra-ordinary performance and Rahman’s magic. Guru is a phenomenon. Through its message – Dream and Dream big, do everything to achieve it - hopefully it brings more good directors/story writers not necessarily of Mani’s caliber to the Indian cinema.