Guru Bhai

Guru as expected, and not as denied by its makers, is hugely inspired by the ‘’Rags-to –Riches’ story of one of India’s greatest entrepreneur, Dhirubhai Ambani . But late Dhirubhai’s story is too huge to be cramped in a 150 min movie, it commands a 1000+ episode serial. And may be that’s one of the reason, the makers shy away from declaring it a bio-epic.

The movie though not Mani Ratnam’s greatest attempt, surely brings out a marvelous performance by by Abhisheik Bachan playing the central character .The performance was so splendid that the media even stated that it could beat some of his dads performances. For this year’s awards, all the others actors already seem to be out of contention. 

The characters in the movie have shades of real life people of the Dhirubhai legend with bollywood war paint , the most prominent ones-

The name Gurubhai-Dhirubhai, Manikdas Gupta played by Mithuda – Ramnath Goenka of the Indian Express, Swatantra- The Indian express, Contractor sahib-Nusli wadia of the Bombay Dyeing and of course the basic story line. 

The movie shows how out of sheer determination of a villager to succeed, he finds his way thru the obstacles put before him by the already established business houses and the well know ‘License Raj’ of the pre- globalization era. He used the rules and licenses to his befit, which surprised many because these were never thought of before him.The company, people and the country grew with him (“Shakti Parivar ko Guru bhai ka Namaskar”,”Duniya ki sabsee badi company banna cahte ho”).Guru is no victory of good over evil story but the ambition determination and sheer will portrayed keeps you inspired even after the movie is over. 

The end (the court scene) is not very convincing and you are left with a thirst for something more griping, feel is like awaiting pudding after a wonderful dinner and being severed toffee.