I know! The title is confusing but the movie is not..Even though Guru chronicles the ethos of Capitalism blatently, its strikes a chord. The desire to dream, to make it big and the dare to say " The word 'no' is not in my vocabulary.", Guru has it all but for one flaw, if the doors are'nt open to him, he'd kick em down.
The movie starts with haunting AR Rehman's music and why it has been given four stars by some paper called New York times and how it benifits my knowledge escapes me. The interesting part of the movies is the disclaimer that it does not portary real people while Guru's life resembles uncannily to the Great baron Dhiru (names sound similar to) and there are parsis whose hundred years of business is threatened by Guru's fast track spint (did I hear the murmur Tatas any one?) And the word no is not in his dictionary..well..So, the protagonist would do anything to make his dream come true, starting with taking dowry so that he can raise capital for the “bigness” he wants to start in the city. The defect is obvious. Even so the man has a heart of gold, he is everything that’s actually wrong with the society. There should be no justifications, no reason to perpetuate evils like dowry and bribery and if Mani Ratnam is trying to project the man against system, which is inherently wrong, dog, eat dog world, there should be different ways. In short, despite the makings of a good entertaining piece and beautiful music, the concept of Guru is flawed. There is no need for the greed to be so big that you swallow the whole world in a single gulp and his antagonist Shyam Sasena is not antagonistic enough, he is quick to say “ Guru is every thing that is wrong in the society” but can hardly put him behind the bars where he belongs. Abhishekh Bachchan is amicable and so is his real life fiance and wife in the movie Aishwarya but.... Guru fails..., every one, the concept of egalitarian society, environment conservation and much more.
The unequivocal spirit of Guru can be appreciated, his philosophies cannot.