guru. villager. visionary. winner.

naam kya tha tumhara
tha, nahin. hai. aur rahega. gurukant desai.

we went to watch mani ratnam's guru yesterday and it is excellent. it is probably one of the best hindi movies i have seen ever. and i have seen a loooot of hindi movies. abhishek bachan gives his best performance to date. when you watch the movie you arent really watching abhishek you are watching gurukant desai. a villager who makes it big because he wants to. there are two kinds of pple in this world: those who accept things the way they are, and those who make other pple accept the way you want them to be. one of the things i observed in this movie and successful people alike, its not really hardwork and intelligence which gets you there. it gets you a long way. but its not what makes you the leader or rather the visionary. its the charisma you hold that makes you or breaks you. if you have the charismatic nature to charm someone, anyone and everyone -that is what makes you. i tend to write notes down in my notepad when im watching a movie. recently ive started to do that. and it annoys friends and my family like anything. but it just reminds me why i like the movie so much. guru has a lot of awesome one liners. anyway ill paraphrase. in the speech at the end of his private hearing.

gurukant desai aap kuch kehna chayengei.
mein ek hi cheez kehna chahtoon hoon..namaste.

u cant help but smile at that. the scene where aishwarya rai and abhishekh hit each other playfully, that is one of the cutest and most natural scenes. i think most of their scenes together are quite good. aishwarya rai rocks in this movie. her role as the emotional support system of guru is quite commendable. and she delivers. apparently this movie is based on dhirubai ambani and his wife.

[at the train station, when abhishekh is leaving for bombay and aishwarya rai who first refuses to go with him is like dont go and wants to go with him]

ar: mat jao.
ab: kya?
ar: ek baar hi poocha tha anei kei liyei, dusri baar pooch nahin saktei
ab: mujhei laga tumhei ana nahin hai...samaan kahan hei tumharei paas.
ar: char saariyan khareed nahin saktei mere liyei
ab: [standing in the train now smiling]..[gets off stands on the platform]..chal.

this so beautiful captures a women's mentality. where you say something and mean something else. haha. and then when she gets pissed and says you can't buy 4 sarees for me. almost like its his fault that her luggage isnt there and it wasn't her that decided initially not to go. and then he goes ok come and thats really sweet. and throughout the movie she is there by his side. and when they go into flashback sitting on the jhula (swing). i always wonder why all gujuratis have a jhula in their house. neway, and he asks her how do i look to you now, not as a thief rite? and she goes no you weren't a thief and youll never will be. its just really emo and sweet. wat can i say, im a sucker for sappy movies.

i think mithunda in his gandhian avatar is great, as well and it just reminds me why he is still considered one of the greatest actors of the time. its a pity u dont get good movies to show your skill. almost like doing a stuck in the rut 9-5 job and never being allowed to grow. he has the best one liners in the movie and i cant remember. otherwise my gushing would go and on and on.

vidya balan and madhavan have small roles but they do it with utmost sincerity. madhavan apparently had to loose 10 kilos for this role. parts of it is really sad. the last scene where abhishek gets a stroke and has paralysis and his kids come to the hospital and are touching his cheek. its such a touching shot. and all of them, especially abhishekh, have done beautifully. his mannerisms, the glasses, the potbelly everything is to the T.

this movie reminds me so much of my dad, my dad came to dubai with one suitcase. dubai was all sand that time, before the oil boom. my parents took the risk and set up their clinic. not knowing whether they would do well or not and and mashallah now they are well known. but they took a big risk to leave the hospital and move into private practice. and were discouraged as well, that it is madness and how they would compete. but they worked very very hard. and i know that everything that me and my siblings have achieved today is only becoz of them. and like gurukant whose favorite saying was mujhei na samaj mein nahin ata, my dads favourite saying was the word impossible is not in my dictionary.

everyone should go watch this movie at least once.