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Alborada (2021 Movie)
Category Archives: Movies
උසාවිය නිහඬයි (Silence in the Courts)
ප්‍රසන්න විතානගේ අධ්‍යක්ෂණය කළ උසාවිය නිහඬයී (Silence in the Courts) වාර්තා චිත්‍රපටය ඊයෙ YouTube වලින් බැලුවා. (අනිත් බොහෝ තැන් වගේම) ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ අධිකරණ පද්ධතියද කොතරම් දූෂිතද යන්න මෙයින් පැහැදිලි වෙනවා. ඒ වගේම වික්ටර් අයිවන් නැවත වරක් මගේ වීරයෙක් වෙන්නේ මේ දූෂිත අධිකරණ ක්‍රමය ගැන දිගින් දිගටම ඔහු නොබියව සටන කළ/කරන ආකාරය නිසා. කළු ගලේ ඔළුව ගහගන්නවාටත් වඩා භයානක කටයුත්තක් වන මෙය විකටර්ට විනා වෙන කිසිම ශ්‍රී ලාංකික මාධ්‍යවේදියකුට (ශ්‍රී ලංකාව තුළම රැඳෙමින්) කරන්නට පුළුවන්ද යන්න සැකයක්.
මේ චිත්‍රපටයට අනුව ලෙනින් රත්නායක නමැති මෙම අසංවර නඩුකාරයා තමන්ගේ නොසන්ඩාල ජීවිතය පවත්වාගෙන යාම සඳහා තමන්ම අසන නඩුවල වග උත්තරකාරයන්ගේ බිරිඳක් දූෂණය කරන අයුරුත්, අධිකරණ පද්ධතිය, පොලිසිය සහ (විශේෂයෙන්ම) The Sunday Times වැනි අප ආදරය කරන මාධ්‍ය ආයතනත් ඔහුව රැකගැනීම සඳහා පෙළ ගැසෙන අයුරුත් ජුජුප්සාකාර ජනකයි. (මේ අදාළ නඩුකාරයාගේ එළියට පැමිණි අපරාධය එකක් පමණයි. තව කී දෙනෙක් ලජ්ජාව හෝ බිය නිසා නිහඩව සිටියාදැයි අප දන්නේ නෑ. මේ නඩු දෙකේ වින්දිතයින්ටත් සාධාරණය ඔප්පු වූ බවක් පෙනෙන්නට නෑ.)
නඩුකාරයා සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඉතාම සංවේදී කාරණයක්ද චිත්‍රපටයට ඇතුල්වීතිබෙනවා. එනම් ඔහුගේ බිරිඳගේ ආදරය හෝ ගෞරවය ඔහුට නොලැබෙන බවයි. මෙය බොහෝ විවාහකයන්ට උරුම දෙයක් වුවත් එයට තවත් අසරණ ගැහැනියක් පළි නැහැ.
ප්‍රසන්න විතානගේ මම ප්‍රිය කරන චිත්‍රපට අධ්‍යක්ෂවරයෙක් නෙවෙයි. වාර්තා චිත්‍රපටයක් ලෙස උසාවිය නිහඬයී කොච්චර සාර්ථකද කියන එකත් ඔබම තීරණය කරන්න. හැබැයි මේ චිත්‍රපටය කරපු එක ගැන මම ප්‍රසන්නට ස්තුතිවන්ත වෙනවා.
Valkyrie (Movie)
I had the pleasure of watching the 2008 movie “Valkyrie,” which is based on a true story that took place during World War II. Valkyrie shows the last of the known 15 attempts to assassinate the German dictator Adolf Hitler.
The most important military conspirators of this final assassination attempt were General Friedrich Olbricht, Major General Henning von Tresckow, and Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, along with Claus-Heinrich Stülpnagel, the German military commander in France. Most of these people come from the aristocratic families and it is understandable that they didn’t approve Hitler’s increasingly irrational management of the war.
A young German officer, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg who is not happy with Hitler’s cruel and despotic rule over Germany and occupied Europe. He is already badly wounded in Tunisia, which lost him an eye, the right hand and two fingers in the left hand. He rejoins the service once he is treated and rested for a few months.
As part of the plan, Colonel Stauffenberg is to keep a briefcase with two bombs under a table in the room in which Hitler was to hold a war briefing and blow him up. The plan succeeds but luckily for Hitler and unluckily for the rest of the world; he gets away with some minor injuries.
Colonel Stauffenberg after placing the briefcase under the table leaves the briefing on some pretext and therefore is under the impression that the plot worked and that Hitler was killed. He and his group then put the plan code-named “Valkyrie” into action to take control of the country without letting the public know, it was his group who planned to kill Hitler and take Germany under their control and then have a truce with the Allied Forces that were fighting against Germany.
Till I watched this movie, I was under the impression that almost all Germans approved Hitler’s sickening atrocities against humanity, but now that I did some research after watching this movie, it is apparent that there had been a large number of German civilians and military (regular army) themselves who was against Hitler. Therefore, we can imagine how many civilians must have tolerated Hitler’s massacres simply because they had no way of opposing or doing anything to the contrary.
Not only Hitler but also many other despots elsewhere in the world have committed atrocities of similar brutality against humanity until they were brought to justice in the end. But many escaped justice too.
I think you should watch this movie as it is historical and to know that, there had been brave people who had the courage to stand up and oppose the autocratic dictators even though many of such brave people hardly succeeded and paid with their lives.
Jobs (Movie)
Jobs movie poster
I watched two feature movies and one documentary based on the life of the Founder of Apple Inc., Steve Jobs. The first movie I saw was “Steve Jobs” (2015) and then “Jobs” (2013.) I prefer the latter as Ashton Kutcher looks more similar to Jobs than Jobs himself!!!
I watched the movie “Jobs” several times as I admire the work of this genius of a man, Steve Jobs, the books written about him and the movies made about him. When I first heard that Ashton Kutcher was playing the title role of the movie, I had my doubts if Kutcher was the appropriate man. But within the first few minutes into the movie I understood that he has done more than mere justice to the role.
The opening scene of the movie was of a middle-aged Steve Jobs introducing his iPod at one of the much hyped Apple product launches in 2001.The film ends with Jobs doing the “Think Different” commercial in 1997. Within these two important events of Apple’s journey which became a legend, the movie takes us through Job’s youthful, irresponsible and rebellious days. The movie takes us to Jobs’ Reed College days and how he dropped out in 1974. Jobs meets up with Daniel Kottke, who together travels to India and later becomes part of the Apple team.
Success comes to Jobs after meeting with Steve Wozniak, of course with the former’s incredible marketing talents. Thus, Apple Computer is born at Jobs parents’ garage. But Jobs is devastated when he finds out that his girlfriend is pregnant. He initially denies paternity of the baby, citing that his girlfriend had multiple partners and one of them could possibly be the father of the unborn child.
Jobs strikes gold with his Apple products and becomes a very successful businessman. But due to his constant quarreling, irritating and irrational ways, he loses his friends, colleagues and partners and as a result, finds himself at loggerheads with the management of his own company, which forces him out of the very organization that he built.
I will not go into further details of the rest of the story, as it could affect your curiosity to watch the movie. All I can say is that this is a great movie and Ashton Kutcher’s acting as Jobs is more than entertaining. I know there are several other feature movies and documentaries produced about this legendary inventor called Steve Jobs, but do not miss Ashton Kutcher version of “Jobs”. It is well worth spending your time to watch it.
Blue Is the Warmest Colour (2013 Movie)
Earlier I had written reviews on two (Fire and Circumstance) films with lesbianism as the theme. This is the third in line and hope you would enjoy reading this (and watching the film subsequently.) Be prepared to experience unlimited excitement of 179 minutes. And, of course, ensure your kids are asleep before you watch the movie. Expect the unexpected!!
Blue Is the Warmest Colour is a 2013 French romantic film written, produced, and directed by Abdellatif Kechiche. The cast include Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux. The movie is based on the French graphic novel of the same name by Julie Maroh. The film won the Palme d’Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. The actresses were also given the Palme as a special prize. The film runs for almost three hours (179 minutes) yet not boring at any stage of it.
This is a controversial film that stirred so called established society. There have been many a film based on lesbianism. I have seen at least three of them. Deepa Mehta’s Fire from India, Maryam Keshavarz’s Circumstance from Iran and now this. All three films stirred the conservative societies like India and Iran and Blue Is the Warmest Colour also became controversial due to its extremely lengthy graphic content of lovemaking of the two girls.
There is this recent research that says every woman is either bisexual or gay and never straight. I don’t know much about it. And the big question is why not? After all, women have more sensitive parts in their bodies that are related to excite both opposite and same sex and one cannot rule out such attractions to both the sexes.
However, the movie Blue Is the Warmest Colour is full of “explicit sexual content” and you might feel embarrassed to see them even all alone! I enjoyed lesbian sex scenes in the two movies I mentioned above but not in this. They are too much under any circumstance. I don’t know why the director wanted to dramatize the sex scene to this level. I was uncomfortable watching it. Cannot understand how one could see this on the big screen.
The movie depicts how love, jealousy, hatred, betrayal, and revenge that lead one to another while one is in a relationship. I thought it was common for heterosexual love and not in gay love.
When shown at Cannes, the film stunned some critics with its long and graphic sex scenes and they were of the view that the movie should be reedited before it goes to public theaters. The movie won the Palme d’Or prize. The judging panel, which included Steven Spielberg, Ang Lee and Nicole Kidman, made an unprecedented move to award the top prize to the film’s two main actresses along with the director. If Spielberg thinks it is praiseworthy, you can hardly disagree.
Fire (1996 film)
Lesbianism had been there from the time immemorial. The history of the Middle Ages tells that the term Lesbian came from the Greek island Lesbos. The island is still called Lesbos in the maps. According to some historical evidence, the island Lesbos was used to outcast socially unacceptable women. There was not a single man in the island and obviously, women started having sex with each other. Hence the gay women were called “lesbians,” meaning the inhabitants of Lesbo.
“The word lesbian is derived from the name of the Greek island of Lesbos, home to the 6th-century BCE poet Sappho. From various ancient writings, historians gathered that a group of young women were left in Sappho’s charge for their instruction or cultural edification. Little of Sappho’s poetry survives, but her remaining poetry reflects the topics she wrote about: women’s daily lives, their relationships, and rituals. She focused on the beauty of women and proclaimed her love for girls. Before the late 19th century, the word lesbian referred to any derivative or aspect of Lesbos, including a type of wine. More at http://www.pravdareport.com/society/sex/24-08-2007/96325-lesbian-0/)”
Many people raise eyebrows when the word lesbianism is mentioned but I think it is the most beautiful thing that can happen between two women. (Hearing about gay relationships between two men makes me vomit though. Even the very thought of it is disgusting for me.)
Fire, directed by Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta was the first Indian mainstream movie about lesbianism. The film is loosely based on Ismat Chughtai‘s 1942 story, Lihaaf (The Quilt) (The 2004 Bollywood movie Girlfriend was also on the same theme but I haven’t watched it. Prima facie it looks more of a cheap commercial movie hence I did not take the trouble of watching it.)
As expected, there was a big protest against the Deepa Mehta movie Fire when it was released to theaters in India. The protesters went up to attacking and setting fire to the theaters that showed the movie. Most of the opposition came from the right wing Hindu fronts like Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP.)
Radha (Shabana Azmi) is married to Ashok (Kulbhushan Kharbanda,) a man who is dedicated to temple than to bed. Their marriage is devoid of marital bliss and excitement. Radha is disappointed and dejected in her sexless marriage. To make things worse, Radha is infertile. Ashok tries to submerge his worldly desires and has not slept with Radha for the past thirteen years!!! Ashok forces his younger brother Jatin (Javed Jaffrey) to marry a girl proposed to him, Sita (Nandita Das) but his heart is elsewhere with a Chinese-Indian coquette. Jatin continues to date her even after his marriage to Sita. Thus, new bride’s sex life with her husband is limited to one off chance of being deflowered by Jatin at the honeymoon night. Even that at that one time he behaves like a moron who does not enjoy taking the beautiful bride’s virginity.
Ashok and Jatin run a small business that sells food and rents videotapes. Biji, Ashok’s mother is immobile and speechless after a stroke. Sita and Radha have to attend to Biji. Mundu, the family servant is loyal to the family but his only pastime is masturbating while watching sex videos on video cassettes, while Ashok’s paralyzed mother Biji is disgusted by the servant’s actions but she is unable to protest as she cannot talk or get up from the bed due to her ailment.
Now let us get back to the two daughters-in-law of the old mother. In the meantime the two daughters – in – law Radha and Sita who are deprived of sex with men become the best of friends. Radha is very caring for Sita, the young bride and the latter reciprocates the caring positively. One day, all of a sudden, Sita kisses Radha. Radha is flabbergasted but does not protest. This makes Sita and Radha going the distance to become fully fledged lesbian lovers. There is one topless scene of the two women and it has been beautifully filmed. The rest my readers, I will leave you to watch the film and see.
P. S.
I personally missed the chance of meeting Nandita Das as we both were awarded the same fellowship from the World Economic Forum but I was denied this at the eleventh hour. (Well, that is another story good enough for a blockbuster movie.)
Charlie Wilson’s War – Movie
Charlie Wilson’s War Poster
Charlie Wilson’s War – Movie
I watched Charlie Wilson’s War several times and would certainly watch it again due to its historical importance and cinematic success. This is an American comedy-drama film, based on the story of U.S. Congressman Charlie Wilson and CIA operative Gust Avrakotos, whose efforts led to Operation Cyclone, a program to organize and support the Afghan mujahedeen during the Soviet–Afghan War. For some reason, (maybe due to the title of the movie) the film did not get expected attention though it was a critical and financial success. Had it been named something to do with Afghan-Soviet war, this would have left deeper memories in the world cinema. At a time when films that had nothing to do with Osama bin Laden were called “Osama,” this movie deserved something related to Afghan war. Charlie Wilson is unknown to many except US political circles I guess.
Charlie Wilson’s War is Mike Nichols’ final movie direction and it was written by Aaron Sorkin. He adapted the movie from George Crile III‘s book Charlie Wilson’s War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History which was released in 2003.
My favorite Hollywood actor Tom Hanks plays the title role while Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman play the other two main roles. The movie was nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, including “Best Motion Picture”, but did not win in any category. Hoffman was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. My favorite character in this movie is Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman,) the maverick CIA officer. His role is so unassuming and natural that you will feel he is apparently not acting but living the character. Julia Roberts is as good as in any of her previous roles.
This movie clearly states that how a lesser known unimportant bigot like Senator Charlie Wilson can move a whole government, with the support of his paramour, the influential socialite Mrs. Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts). against an enemy thousands of miles away with using influence and connections to define the fate of an entire region by killing thousands and leaving millions of people in destitution and making an entire region a never-ending battle field.
The inveterate drinker and irresponsible womanizer Senator Wilson, with the help of the CIA officer Avrakotos, and with the influence of Mrs. Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts) convert the budget of a measly $5 million USD to a double of that amount. The CIA’s anticommunism budget evolves from $5 million to over $500 million later (with the same amount matched by Saudi Arabia) for covert operations against the legitimate Afghan government and their northern allies, the Soviet Union who enters Afghanistan on the request of the Afghan President Najibullah Khan. The way it is done, if the story is true to the true events in the history, tells a lot about how light the world’s fate is taken by the vile people of American politics.
Mujahedeen rebels of Afghanistan wage a guerrilla war against Najibullah Khan’s legitimate Afghan government and when things get worse, Khan invites the Soviet forces to depend Afghanistan from the rebels. By this time the USA’s covert operation is of a small budget. When the war worsens millions of Afghan refugees cross the Afghan-Pakistani border and enter Pakistan. General Zia-ul-Haq is forced to spring into action and he turns to the US help according to a manipulated plan by Senator Charlie Wilson. This makes the bloody Zia who was in the bad books of the US government for hanging the then legitimately elected Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in an unfair trial and declared Pakistan a military state to an American ally. Zia visits America and gets the funding to train Afghan and Pakistani youth as mujahedeen fighters to fight Afghan and Soviet forces. Zia makes use of this opportunity to show the Pakistani people that he is pro-Islamist and uses religion to claim the popular support him. This is the major turning point of secular Pakistan to become an extremist one. As anywhere in the world, people are fooled and Pakistan loses its way to development and gets entangled in a quagmire of a religious extremism something which it has not been able to come out of to date. Pakistan’s defense budget is increased by manifold and in addition to its traditional enemy India; it has to fight an unnecessary enemy too. The mujahideens who were indoctrinated, funded and trained by US-Pakistani coalition started waging their war against Pakistan government (and that of Afghanistan) in the form of Taliban and you know the rest.
Anyway, the money pumped to Afghan operations ends up with leaving powerful Stinger missiles on the hands of bloody mujahideens who fire them at Soviet MI 24 gunships and make the Red Army abandon Afghanistan unceremoniously without accomplishing the mission. This is a major victory of America’s Cold War against the Soviet Union. With the US help, America is able to create “a Vietnam for the Soviet Union” and making Ronald Reagan, the then US president a happy man.
I can remember this series of events as a schoolboy as I remember how the Soviet Union entered Afghanistan and the war started thanks to CNN news on local TV, Rupavahini telecast the world events for few minutes every night during their newscasts.
At the end, the movie comes to a universal truth. The parties who engaged in the war by supplying millions of dollars hesitate to fund for education and development. Charlie Wilson also understands the unhappy truth. However, his pride is damaged by his reasonable fears of what unintended consequences that his clandestine efforts could result in the implications of US disengagement from Afghanistan. Wilson follows Gust’s guidance to seek support for post-Soviet occupation Afghanistan but finds almost no enthusiasm in the US government for even the modest measures he proposes. This is common to many other battlefields the USA got involved in from Vietnam to Syria I guess.
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P.S. There are a number of interesting dialogs in the movie and I prefer these two of all of them.
Dialog 01.
Larry Liddle: Miss?
Charlie’s Angel #1: Yes sir?
Larry Liddle: It seems to me lookin’ around, that it’s almost all women workin’ here; and that they’re all very pretty. Is that common?
Charlie’s Angel #1: Well… Congressman Wilson, he has an expression. He says uhh, “You can teach ’em to type, but you can’t teach ’em to grow tits.”
Larry Liddle: Well, that’s… charming.
Dialog 02.
Charlie Wilson: You’re no James Bond.
Gust Avrakotos: You’re no Thomas Jefferson, either. Let’s call it even.
To read the rest of the dialogs, please click this linkhttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472062/quotes.
Actors Tom Hanks (L) and Julia Roberts are shown in a scene from the film “Charlie Wilson’s War” in this undated publicity photograph. “Charlie Wilson’s War” received a total of five Golden Globe nominations, the second most for any film including best musical or comedy film, as nominations were announced in Beverly Hills, California December 13, 2007. The Golden Globe Awards, which were presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, will be held in Beverly Hills January 13, 2008. REUTERS/Universal Pictures/Handout (UNITED STATES). EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. NO ARCHIVES. NO SALES.
Love in the Time of Cholera (film)
It was one of my good friends that advised me to watch this movie “Love in the Time of Cholera” when I was speaking to him about the girl that I loved the most in my life, which did not have a happy ending. In fact, this film is a treat to watch, if you take the movie in that respect, the love lost. If not for Florentino Ariza, who else will wait for 51 years, 9 months, and 4 days – well, while having dalliances with over 600 women in between – to meet the one he loved most as a teenager? Florentino Ariza does and wins the coveted prize, his dream girl, now a 70-year-old widow with a few kids.
You won’t understand these sentiments unless you read the novel of the same name by the late Gabriel García Márquez (which the movie was based on) or at least watch the movie. I am yet to read the book, but since I watched the movie first, I would write about it here first.
If I want to read the novel, I can easily read the English translation of the novel but I want to read it in Spanish, the original language it was written. So, I am waiting to learn Spanish first to read this. I can learn a new language pretty fast but will have to wait a little longer to make such a commitment.
The movie was directed by Mike Newell and produced by Scott Steindorff. The three main characters in the movie are Fermina Daza (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) and her two suitors, Florentino Ariza (Javier Bardem) and Doctor Juvenal Urbino (Benjamin Bratt.) It is said that the producer spent over three years wooing Gabriel García Márquez for the rights to the book telling him that he was Florentino and would not give up until he got the rights. (Well, I would have done the same or more, if I were the producer as the story is that important and relative to me.)
The love triangle between the trio spans for 50 years. Florentino misses his sweetheart but is determined to make amends by making himself a rich and popular poet (who also writes love letters for other lovers who cannot write or are not articulate enough to impress their partners.) Wealth and fame bring him more female admirers than a rock star of today. And, to evade the pain of the love lost – I do not know this was the right reason – he keeps having affairs with all the attractive women who come his way.
I am not ashamed of saying this. But I too will wait the next 50 years or more, to meet my love again should she comes back to me at any time in the future, even with 10 children, and maybe some 20-30 grandchildren too. (But in the meantime, I am not indulging in any carnal exploits). Love is such a strong sentiment that one can sacrifice anything, unfortunately, when it matters most, you do not know “how to sell a contradiction” as Culture Club sings in “Karma Chameleon” with your ego and what not? When you realize what you lose, it is already too late. But for me, being back with her again is never too late. At least, not till the Earth explodes in 4.5 billion years as astronomers predict !!!
Circumstance (2011 film)
Nanda Wanninayaka March 5, 2016.
“Circumstance” is a dramatic film written and directed by Maryam Keshavarz in 2011. Its main cast is done by Nikohl Boosheri, Sarah Kazemy, and Reza Sixo Safai. It focuses its scope into lesbianism in modern Iran and other cultural restrictions.
The movie shows unseen and unexpected lifestyles of the youth in modern day Iran. In the movie, two girls, Atafeh (Nikohl Boosheri,) a daughter of a rich and respected family and orphaned Shireen (Sarah Kazemy) discover themselves are in a lesbian relationship, which is condemned and banned by post-revolutionary Iran. Atafeh’s elder brother, Mehran (Reza Sixo Safai) is obsessed with drugs but later becomes increasingly obsessed with Islam and becomes very conservative and old fashioned in his religious beliefs. Both Atafeh and Shireen find time to go out and have fun in secluded areas and in illicit discotheques. They also experiment with sex, drinking and drugs. One day they are caught by the Islamic Religious Police in Iran and arrested. They are taken to the police station and treated with cruelty. In the investigation to the girls’ behavior, even their virginity is checked medically by men! However, Atafeh is released from the police custody by her rich father by offering bribes to the police and it is her brother that comes to the rescue of her friend, Shireen. The whole saga shows how restricted the life is for the Iranian youth.
The movie is like a beautifully woven fabric. It shows how fast the life is for the youth and how slow the life is for typical Iranians. The sex scenes in the movies are not included forcibly. They happen with the natural flow of the movie. Believe me, they are beautifully done with showing mild but creative nudity. The movie is set in Iran but it was filmed in Lebanon to avoid the Iranian government’s interference.
The film is in Persian language and you can buy a DVD with English subtitles or download the movie from torrents with English subtitles.
The director, Maryam Keshavarz, was raised in the United States but spent summers in Iran. There she saw the unreasonable restrictions in the country and how the youth try to be adventurous and experimental. This is the first full length feature film she directed.
The critics had mainly positive reviews and it was called “A thought-provoking, insightful look into Iranian youth culture” by many. The film was banned in Iran as expected and the director Keshavarz herself was banned from returning to Iran by the Iranian government.
Guru Movie by Mani Ratnam
Guru movie poster
I don’t usually go to cinemas to watch Hindi movies. I buy the DVDs and watch them at home. But when Mani Ratnam’s Guru came to Colombo I went to watch it at a cinema with my wife. Because I had read on the internet that Guru is such an entertaining and inspiring movie. Besides, I am a big fan of Mani Ratnam.
Aishwarya in Guru
Aishwarya Rai in Guru Movie
I was not disappointed. I enjoyed the movie from the beginning to the end. Romance between Guru and Sujatha was very creatively crafted. The songs were beautiful; especially Barso Re.Abhishek Bhachchan had done justice to his character. This was the best Abhishek movie I ever saw. Aishwarya Rai was as beautiful as ever and much better than in her previous movies. I think the credit should go to the director Mani Ratnam for getting the best out of Abhishek and Aishwarya.
Guru Movie Trailer
The movie shows the conflict between the older generation and the new generation at the beginning. Gurukant Desai, usually called Guru, is a village lad. Guru’s father wants Guru to do well academically but Guru is not vibrant in studies. He wants to do a job overseas instead. Father resists by saying dreams never come true but Guru manages to go to Turkey to work at a fuel distribution company. Later he is promoted to a supervisor’s position with a big salary increase. But he refuses the promotion and makes his mind to go back to India to start a business of his own.
Abhishek and Aishwarya in Guru
Rather than romance between Guru and Sujatha what my eyes went on to was the untiring efforts of Guru to make a business empire during the infamous License Raj era which was not conducive to business. During that time it was extremely difficult to get licenses to start businesses. So Guru happens to bribe government officials including Chief Ministers and manages to get licenses for his factories. His main business is garments but he later expands to a host of other businesses such as petrochemicals.
Aishwarya in Guru
Guru’s business model is such that he issues shares of his companies to the public. The public readily invest in his companies as Guru is very creative in his job that he produces a lot of profits. Thus the public gets a big share of their return on investment.
Abhishek Bhachchan in Guru
But his onetime admirer, Manik Dasgupta, a publisher of the popular newspaper Samachar becomes estranged with Guru and start revealing Guru’s dirty secrets in how he makes big profits, how he manipulates share prices and how he smuggles machinery into India and produces beyond quotas. This doesn’t harm Guru’s courage but he is upset as Manik is estranged with him. He still respects him for helping the former at the beginning of his business and shouts at Guru’s supporters who attacked Manik’s car.
Mithun Chakraborty in Guru
Guru suffers from a sudden stroke after government seals his factory due to Manik’s attacks through his newspaper and is admitted to hospital. More than the doctors, Guru’s wife must be credited for his recovery. At the hearing of his case she helps him a lot. Ultimately he is fined a big sum of money for malpractices in his businesses but he is allowed to continue his factories after the courts hearing his side of the story.Aishwarya Rai in GuruThus ends the story and it inspires us as to how one’s courage should be in business or any other ventures. The movie is loosely based on Dhirubhai Ambani’s story of how he built Reliance Empire in India. Ambani did not have an easy ride. Coming from a rural village with no proper English education, he had to fight against all odds to have a place in Bombay’s dog-eat-dog business arena. But he wins all wars against him and finally creates India’s biggest company, Reliance Industries.
Nanda Wanninayaka 