Guru lacks intensity

I have always the admired Dhriubhai Ambani (DHA ) which at one point in time even made me join the Reliance group. His legacy has made a profound impact on the Indian industry. His insatiable appetite for scale is very difficult to replicate. his vision of straddling the entire value chain is remarkable feat in execution. I can go on singing paeans about him even though his methods of achieving the unthinkable may have been controversial or out right against the law or rather around the law.

I was very keen on watching the movie Guru - I cant remember an Indian movie which is based on the life and times of a Businessman and this was on DHA. After watching half a dozen reviews was not very sure why Mani Ratnam kept on denying that the movie was not based on DHA though it was very obvious - from his middle east sojourn to starting from the by lanes of the cloth market to the famous spat with Indian express and even the humble gujrati pedigree - the son of a headmaster. There are too many incidents which cannot be just a coincidence.

I must admit its a different genre altogether and a difficult act when you dont have similar kind of films made. After coming out - the first feeling was the movie lacked intensity , though AB baby was good and Aish very restrained ( round about from D2 ) the overall pace was a bit slack. Its a momentous task to make a film on such larger than life figure. To make it look like fiction the director added certain co-stars like Vidya un-necessarily which too away precious screen time instead he could have focussed more on the protagonist. I see no point in the flip flop which has resulted in the director doing away with liberties and restricting the scope which makes him to go into avoidabel facets. The camera work is superb and couple of songs are hummable and the music has to grow on you very typical of ARM.

Neverthless with its flaws the movie is watchable once. Mani Ratnam has not done an encore like Bombay or Roja yet the themes in the movie particularly of how AB comes out against the established system using the media or the his means of getting the work done by corruption/condescend is shown with remarkable maturity. The movie may not be a tribute to the great man but makes an earnest attempt to show even by adopting dubious means wealth and value can be created not just for personal gains but also for other people in the value chain.