Guru (2007)

Director:

Mani Ratnam

Writers:

Mani Ratnam (story)
Vijay Krishna Acharya (dialogue) ...

Release Date:

12 January 2007 (Canada)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

The life of the most controversial man of the year.

Plot:

A villager, Gurukant Desai, arrives in Bombay 1958, and rises from its streets to become the GURU, the biggest tycoon in Indian history.

Plot Keywords:

Villager | Business | Opening Narration | Told In Flashback | Industrialist

Cast

Mithun Chakraborty	...	Manikdas Gupta
Abhishek Bachchan	...	Gurukant K. Desai
Aishwarya Rai	...	Sujata
Madhavan	...	Shyam Saxena (as R. Madhavan)
Vidya Balan	...	Meenakshi Gupta
Roshan Seth	...	Thapar
Mallika Sherawat	...	Jhumpa
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Arya Babbar	...	Jignesh
Dhritiman Chatterjee	...	Thapar Commission Member
Rajendra Gupta	...	Kantilal Desai
Darshan Jariwala	...	Anand Patekar
Manoj Joshi	...	Ghanshyam Bhai
Sachin Khedekar	...	Sujata's Father
Nina Kulkarni	...	Sujata's Mother
Padmarani	...	Mrs. K. Desai
Sudhir Pandey	...	Mathura Das
Prathap K. Pothan	...	K R Menon I.A.S
Ravi Prakaash	...	Board
Simran Singh	...	Young Meenu

Also Known As:

Gurukant (India: Telugu title)
Mani Ratnam's Guru (India: English title) (complete title)

Runtime:

USA:166 min

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:M | India:U

Filming Locations:

Assam, India

Company:

Madras Talkies

Trivia:

The film was shot in super 35 and spherical lenses (vis-à-vis anamorphic and grandeur).

Goofs:

Continuity: In the scene where Abhishek Bachan is addressing his first AGM in a "pandal", he is seen loosening his tie, but in the next scene his tie is fully knotted. Then again in the next scene, his tie changes length and becomes much shorter.

Quotes:

Gurukant Desai: If you don't dream, you will be stuck to your village all your life.

Soundtrack:

Ay Hairathe

Even Dhirubhai couldn't have written a better autobiography

Well, Maniratnam has proved his worth as a director. To be able to make a hero out of somebody like Dhirubhai requires great skills. Not to mention that he made an excellent movie even with Ms Rai in it. (why did he cast her in that movie - did he lose a bet or was that a contractual thing for casting Mr. Bachan? Or was Tabu unavailable?) At the end of the movie the audience are most likely to come to the following conclusions: 1. Guru is a courageous, in-your-face, kind of entrepreneurial genius. 2. People such as Guru are the key to the success of our country and to the elimination of poverty 3. Guru is a hero of the poor people fighting for them against the club going, golf playing, influenced by the west, rich clique who prevented others from coming into their group with the help of the license raj, 4. People who stand up against corruption are honest, good people but really who are we kidding, do we really need these jokers? and 5. a small side issue is that the role of good women is at the side of their genius husbands even when they are treated as start-up capital. However, these are my questions: 1. If the poor are poor is it really because they are either lazy, or scared, or simply idiots. I wonder what would Mohd. Yunus of Grameen Bank have to say about this? 2. According to the movie people like Guru benefited 30 million people. In a country of 1 billion is 30million that much? It is just 0.3%. Not to mention these "poor people" had to be people who were at least of middle class status and living in cities. 3. Yes, it is true that the license raj did fetter the rise of dynamic capitalists - but will somebody ever talk about those toiling masses of this country who work until death to make this country run and people like Guru trilionaires? 4. And will someone ever say anything against making heroes of not only persons who are geniuses at exploiting others but also those who take dowry? what happened to all that social conscience of ours? It makes me very sad when talented film makers such as Maniratnam make such movies. Miracles can happen and may be Maniratnam will find his conscience....someday....