Guru

Gurukant Desai grows up in a village; his father is a teacher and wants his son to study. Guru does not. He goes to Turkey to work for an oil company, saves money and returns to India. He goes to Bombay and enters the textile trade. He starts small, bends the rules, finds ways through customs, builds relations with politicians and grows his company. In the end he is one of the country's largest industrialists. And an investigation is opened into him. Mani Ratnam directs. Abhishek Bachchan plays Guru and Aishwarya Rai plays his wife Sujata, with Mithun Chakraborty and Madhavan in the cast. The music is by A. R. Rahman. The character rests largely on a real person: Dhirubhai Ambani, who founded one of India's largest companies. The film does not use the name but the resemblance is plain and was discussed on release. The narrative does not settle its position: Guru breaks rules, pays bribes and lies; the film does not hide it and does not build him as a criminal either. His speech of defence at the end is its most argued passage. Mani Ratnam's cinema is built on joining politics to the individual, and this is his most directly economic narrative. The photography and the music are its strongest side; the songs carry a function inside the narrative. Who it is for: viewers who like mainstream Indian cinema and narratives about business. Who it is not for: it is long, the second half accelerates, and the film's view of its central figure is too indulgent for some viewers.