ManiRatnam's Guru - A Prelude
3 Comments Published by Prasad Venkat on Tuesday, November 07, 2006 at 2:23 PM.
Update: Guru Movie Review
Guru is my most eagerly awaited movie this year, after Munich. Well, ManiRatnam is called the Indian Spielberg in many cinema corners, but I disagree. Both are critically acclaimed and at the same time well received by the masses. Both are techincally very competent and use technology to enhance their story-telling, not vice versa. Both have a penchant for taking up de-humanising aspects of the society and have made very neat pictures. On rare occasions, they both get overly sentimental and start manipulating the emotions of the audience rather than let the audience decide their course of feelings. In spite of the mentioned similarities, I believe Mani is a character of his own and that very personality manages to find it's way in all of his movies - like a thumb impression on the frames.
As usual with ManiRatnam's projects, a thick cloud of secrecy is over and beneath 'Guru'. Rumour had it that it is the story of the most popular & controversial Indian businessman Dhirubhai Ambani but the team denied it. A few clippings available on the web suggest that the story, which seems to be of epic proportions, is about a villager who makes it big on the national level with his business acumen. A few stills (here & else where) made available for promotion, somehow remind me of 'Godfather II'. ManiRatnam has his own version of the 'Godfather', and going by the ad, 'Guru' is very well not about the rise of a don, but it's just that those photographs make me wonder if ManiRatnam may have borrowed the tone and execution from the Coppolla movie.
Some of the best technicians/artsistes are colloborating on this movie: Rajiv Menon is the cinematographer; art projects by Sabu Cyril; Sreekar Prasad is the editor; AR Rahman is taking care of the songs and background score. It must be a treat for the eyes and ears. The mind? ManiRatnam suffered a cardiac arrest on the sets of 'Yuva' and since then he has committed himself to a couple of titles: 'Lajjo' and 'Mahabharata'. It's very unlike him to be involved in two movies at a time, but I'd like to think of it as a veteran director who is displaying his mastery over the art, instead of someone who is in a hurry to churn out movies before his time runs out. As of today, 'Guru' is likely to hit the screens sometime next month, but Mani is known for his insistence on perfectly timing the release of his movies until the last minute.
Update:
Here's a review of the songs.Here's a piece on the cast for the movie.
Guru is my most eagerly awaited movie this year, after Munich. Well, ManiRatnam is called the Indian Spielberg in many cinema corners, but I disagree. Both are critically acclaimed and at the same time well received by the masses. Both are techincally very competent and use technology to enhance their story-telling, not vice versa. Both have a penchant for taking up de-humanising aspects of the society and have made very neat pictures. On rare occasions, they both get overly sentimental and start manipulating the emotions of the audience rather than let the audience decide their course of feelings. In spite of the mentioned similarities, I believe Mani is a character of his own and that very personality manages to find it's way in all of his movies - like a thumb impression on the frames.
As usual with ManiRatnam's projects, a thick cloud of secrecy is over and beneath 'Guru'. Rumour had it that it is the story of the most popular & controversial Indian businessman Dhirubhai Ambani but the team denied it. A few clippings available on the web suggest that the story, which seems to be of epic proportions, is about a villager who makes it big on the national level with his business acumen. A few stills (here & else where) made available for promotion, somehow remind me of 'Godfather II'. ManiRatnam has his own version of the 'Godfather', and going by the ad, 'Guru' is very well not about the rise of a don, but it's just that those photographs make me wonder if ManiRatnam may have borrowed the tone and execution from the Coppolla movie.
Some of the best technicians/artsistes are colloborating on this movie: Rajiv Menon is the cinematographer; art projects by Sabu Cyril; Sreekar Prasad is the editor; AR Rahman is taking care of the songs and background score. It must be a treat for the eyes and ears. The mind? ManiRatnam suffered a cardiac arrest on the sets of 'Yuva' and since then he has committed himself to a couple of titles: 'Lajjo' and 'Mahabharata'. It's very unlike him to be involved in two movies at a time, but I'd like to think of it as a veteran director who is displaying his mastery over the art, instead of someone who is in a hurry to churn out movies before his time runs out. As of today, 'Guru' is likely to hit the screens sometime next month, but Mani is known for his insistence on perfectly timing the release of his movies until the last minute.
Update:
Here's a review of the songs.Here's a piece on the cast for the movie.
Many of his movies are great works of art, but I thought Iruvar was a confused movie, as if ManiRatnam lost his way after the first few minutes. I also have a complaint about the way unwanted, perverse sexualities make their way into all his movies...I agree that he is the best in India.
Cheers
Varaha
<-Perverse sexualities->
You mean the item numbers he employs? I agree that he can do without them. 'Guru' seems liike a very serious work and I hope there aren't anyone flashing their skin rudely.
link abt guru's music
http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/25739/rahman-croons-the-sound-of-guru.html