A Glimpse into Mani's "Guru"

Mani Rathnam is one of those few Indian directors who has carved a niche for himself and his style of movies. Madras Talkies is his home production and everyone knows about all the trademark movies that have come under his direction and remain as hallmarks of good cinema. With his sophisticated style of film taking and his eye for the best and most suited star cast coomplimented by the best in music AR. Rahman (this time, it is indeed worth spending every penny and minute watching Mani's films.

I am both excited and am eagerly awaiting the release of his next venture "Guru" from Bollywood. During my browsing time, I manage to catch up on all the tit bits from the websites on the movie. Almost everything about Guru is grandiose and builds high expectations.

Beginning with a heavy star cast that includes Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Mithun Chakravarthy, Madhavan and Vidya Balan, well, if this isn't the only reason to watch the movie. With Mani's expert direction, I am positive that each actor would have performed to the best of their abilities. The second best thing about Guru is its music-AR Rahman has been roped in to do some stunning background score. Gulzar's lyrics have been sung by ARR, Alka Yagnik, Udit Narayan, Hariharan, Shreya Ghoshal, Madhushree and Bappi Lahiri.

Finally, the story of Guru- It is rumored to be based on the life of the Ambani family. The Ambani family is known to be one of the richest conglomerates in the world. The movie is based on the transition of a simple villager to a rising businessman and entrepreneur who grows to become the largest private company in India. Abhishek Bachchan is said to have played the part of Dhirubai and Aishwarya as Kokilaben. Of course, Madhavan, Vidya Balan and Mithun also have strong supporting characters to play. Inspite of being known to do some controversial movies like Nayagan, Bombay where Mani Rathnam has had to face obstacles, in this movie too, he had to walk a tight rope in not copying the verbatim lifestyle of the Ambani's, since the family doesn't want any controversial scenes that would slander their family reputation. So, a private screening of the movie to the Ambani family would probably be expected before its December release.

Abhishek Bachchan's performance both as the youngster and the older Ambani must indeed be a visual treat for his fans and of course the chemistry between him and Aishwarya (his soon to be wife) must only add more of the magical element to the movie. A few articles comparing Ambani to Velu Naicker in Mani's Nayagan about 20 years ago have also been coming out claiming that this would be Nayagan Part II. Since, the movie has been shot in Mani's favorite city Mumbai, but a lot of shotting was also done in and around Chennai, the song sequences have been shot again in Mani's favorite location- Thirumalai Naicker Mahal in Madurai (the place where Kannalane song from Bombay was shot.

The Music of Guru was released in a star studded event in Mumbai last week (pictures are at India Glitz events gallery under Hindi section), but the CDs become available only on Nov 18th.

A short Trailer of the movie at India Glitz and several short music bits are available for viewing at behindwoods.com as well.

Guru seems to be amazingly promising and comes with a lot of expectations from the 60 minute promo trailer ...Villager Visionary..Winner with ARR's background score and minimal dialogues. Just counting the days till its release this December.