'Guru Bhai'

We went to watch Mani Ratnam's 'Guru' today....loads of us together packed in the same cinema hall...

Mani Ratnam is brilliant, if you ask me....I dont remember one movie of his which didnt leave a lasting impression...okay, so 'Dil se' was a little half baked and definitely awkwardly concluded....I adore the rest....Yuva, for example (although having an exaggerated climax) was so true to the idealistic life our fathers had thought of back home in Bengal, that I would so relate to it....the notion of clinging onto the idea of being the Jesus of the masses...of being rich and brilliant and talented, and purposelessly so ...and finding your passion in trying to change the world...I love the romantic ring to it, and the fact that I have heard so many stories about it in my childhood....

Anyway, the movie 'Guru' is almost entirely based on the life of Dhirubhai Ambani...the main protagonist is also called GuruBhai...its a story of one man on a mission, and in a hurry to get there...he wanted to do 'biznisss' (with the god awful gujju accent)...and his life was determined by profits made...shrewd and extremely cunning about subverting rules and license raj regulations ....he had interesting ideas of going against rules, man....of buying 6 spinning machines and 6 as spare machines, not paying duty on the spare 6...and then using them in the factory as normal machines anyway, doubling output...ingenously unscrupulous!...

But India adored him. He was the darling of the masses, mainlly because he showed them the glory of profit-making. Indians used to look down on such commercial pursuits as running after profits and all that...banias and traders were necessarily uncouth and unsphisticated and greedy...it was an almost an insult, being called a bania....

But he made making money appear romantic...that unabashed pursuit of growth and returns is the way to get to your dreams....India woke to a totally different agenda....

When stories of his shady deals and underhandedness came to the picture, there was public outcry....India does claim to have an exalted sense of morality....but once he was exonerated to an extent, the adulation came back and came back stronger.....he was every aspiring middle class guy's hero...and he was protrayed like that in the movie....

About the movie, I loved the first half....the narration is always free flowing...the events very very clearly linked....and the characted are consistent and well fleshed out....every one has enough to do, and they fit seamless with the narrative...actually, you dont judge Mani Ratnam by these factors anymore...I think he has gone beyond that....

The acting, well... Abhishek Bachchan is a ROCK STAR..he is brilliant in the movie....no one could have done it better, I think..his gait, his mannerisms, his dailogue delivery, his gestures..I think they were awesome...and of course, Madhavan-sure, smart, confident and very very calm....very neat performance....Surprise!!.. Mithun Chakravarti, awesome turn as the upright editor of the independant who loved GuruBhai but fought him in public over his scruples...I dont know why Indian Cinema doesnt afford roles of such meat to people of his age and experience...my god would they be a treat to watch....

Among the women, I really like Vidya Balan....I think she is funky and smart and not self conscious...she's someone I would like to hang out kinds...very small role, mainly as a counter to Madhavan in his crusade against Guru...but good enough potrayal of a lively, chirpy girl suffering from multiple sclerosis disorder.... Ash, well...it surprises me how much she gets to cry in every movie man....its like she is every director's favourite actress when it comes to spraying out emotions....the role didnt demand much, and she did it okay....actually, I am not a great fan of hers...I think she feeds off her looks too much and she takes it as her duty and her obligation to be extra feminine and graceful....you cant do that, and yet be believable, you know...

Anyway, Ishu raised this question that if this guy is so unscrupulous, then why did the mass adore him anyway?...

Good question, methinks...my take on it....he had introduced India to the charms of making money and having vision ...and that too, really quickly...people soon realized that money is a means to happiness..or at least, marrying you daughter off or buying your car to make your lives easier....and he made the money for them...and he was one of them, a coming-from-nowhere bum chum who takes over the industrial world...he fought the original family wealth patriachs...somethign everyone in newly independant India wanted to do....he had a romantic, aspirational halo to himself...he became everyone's favorite success story...obviously, people in important positions wanted him to be exposed and wanted his spiral to curb....but the masses wanted to believe this was possisble without any shadow of doubt...they wanted to believe him, and so when he was exonerated, they fell right back on his lap....his story has the same irrationality that adds the spice to every Indian story worth telling...and a very good one at that...

Now, after writing loads on Gurubhai, I shall go on and research on DhiruBhai...I want to know more about the man who is an icon beyond comparison in India....I know very general stuff about him, but now it seems his life is worth knowing more about..

Tata!