Thursday, December 07, 2006

Abhishek-Aishwarya starrer 'Guru'

All right, so there is a lot of hype surrounding the film already. Why?

1. The film is directed by Mani Ratnam, a great director in his own right.
2. Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai are, if media reports are to be believed, linked romantically.
3. The film 'Guru' is based on the life of Dhirubhai Ambani, one of the most successful (and controversial) tycoons that India has seen.

With respect to the rumours regarding reason 3 above, have a look at this video, especially post the 45 second mark, where Abhishek Bachchan and Mani Ratnam try to evade the question.



But are there similarities that we can see?

Visit the official movie site, www.guru-thefilm.com and you'll be surprised.

Similarity no. 1 --> Guru's character comes from a village in Gujarat. (So what??)

Similarity no. 2 --> Guru's father is also the headmaster of a village school.

Similarity no. 3 --> When Guru moves to Mumbai, wife in tow, he, like Dhirubhai, lives in a one room chawl.

Similarity no. 4 --> Shakti Corporation, according to the film, becomes the first Indian company to enter the Forbes 500 list of companies. Reliance Industries Ltd. is the first private sector company from India to be listed on the Forbes 500.

Similarity no. 5 --> Mithun Chokraborty runs the newspaper 'Swatantra'. It is not very difficult to spot the similarities of the character with Ramnath Goenka who ran the 'Indian Express'.

Similarity no. 6 --> The site actually mentions Dhirubhai's most famous quote "Think Big, Think Ahead, Think Fast"

Of course, people might point out that Guru's character doesn't go to Aden; it goes to Turkey. But then, there are way too many similarities, what do you say?

I'm sure this is one movie the business historian Gita Piramal is going to enjoy. After all, it was after reading her "Business Maharajas" that I became intrigued with the Ambani story.

2 comments:

nitinmohta said...

hmm... guess will have to read business maharajas now.. and of course.. I am also waiting for Guru

Shekhar said...

nitin: Boss, the movie was awesome !! And so is the book, trust me.