Bollywood Gallery #6 - NO COMMENTS

Ratnam's earlier films, from Pakal Nilavu, Mouna Raagam, Nayakan, Agninakshtram, Dalapathi, Roja, Bombay, Iruvar, Alai Paayuthe and Kannathil Muthamittal had a strong Tamil flavour.

That was the strength of his movies.

Guru's lead actors are Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Mithun Chakraborty and Vidya Balan.

Surya dubs for Abhishek in the Tamil version. That is the power of being Mani Ratnam -- even the biggest stars will do a dubbing job for your film.

Guru is the story of Gurukant Desai, a man who dreams big right from the start. He has to face several hurdles and fight an obstinate system all alone to see his dreams come true.

The mantra that the young man follows diligently is that those who do not dream do not achieve anything in life.

He does reach the top, ultimately.

Another man is a vital part of Guru's life when he is young and dreaming, a 22-year-old news reporter, played by Madhavan.

Ever since Madhavan made his debut in Mani Ratnam's Alai Paayuthe, he has been the director's blue-eyed boy, appearing in all his films.

Madhavan was asked to shed weight so that he looked like a 22 year old. And he did shed eight kg.

The actor told rediff.com in an earlier interview, "He (Mani Ratnam) told me, if anybody can do it, you can, because you have a face for it. So, I took one month off and lost a huge amount of weight and put on some colour. I lost weight without starving."

Madhavan said his character "believes that good should be done to people. He likes it when somebody does something good for the people and society. But he believes that it should be done within the bounds of the law.

He believes that there is a reason why there is law and there is a reason why people make laws. He opposes anyone who breaks the law -- without caring who that person is. So, he stands to oppose Gurukant Desai when he breaks laws. This reporter knows the power of words

But Gurukant Desai believes that if a law can be made in a day, it can also be changed in a day. That is the difference between the man dreaming big and the man watching him dream big.

Guru is not scared of criticism either. He believes that 'when people criticise you, it means you are doing good. I am not scared of society that criticises me because I know I am also part of the same society.'

Guru's wife is played by Aishwarya Rai, who made her debut in Mani Ratnam's Iruvar. The film was roughly based on the lives of MGR, Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa.

P C Sreeram has shot the maximum number of films for Mani Ratnam. But Rajeev Menon, who was behind the camera for Bombay, returns as Ratnam's cinematographer in Guru. Other than the main characters, Mallika Sherawat, Pratap Pothen, Lakshmi, Baby Asha, Baby Anushka and Master Sunny also play key roles in the film.

Mani Ratnam, who has shot all his films in India so far, has gone to Istanbul, Turkey, to shoot a song featuring Bachchan and Mallika Sherawat. Otherwise, the shooting of the film was mainly done in Chennai.

No one but A R Rahman can compose the music for a Mani Ratnam film! Rahman made his debut in Roja.

Similarly, editing of a Mani Ratnam film has to be by Sreekar Prasad and sound by H Sridhar -- his regulars. The film is produced by Mani Ratnam and G Srinivasan for Madras Talkies.

http://specials.rediff.com/movies/2006/dec/19slide10.htm

Run for fun: Govinda and Akshay Kumar in Bhagam Bhaag