“Eklavya- The Royal Guard” – Story of Rightful Reasoning!

Cast:
Amitabh Bachchan, Sharmila Tagore, Sanjay Dutt, Saif Ali Khan, Vidya Balan, Jackie Shroff, Boman Irani, Raima Sen, & Jimmy Shergill.

Direction: Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Genre: Drama,
Movie Overall Rating: **** (4 stars out of 5)
Length: 1 hr 45 mins

The aim and intention of my reviews is to critique and recommend while not revealing the whole story to enjoy the movie when seen. Minor details may have been divulged for proper review!

The philosophy of Eklavya is about ‘Dharma’ - What is Rightful and What you Believe is Rightful! "Dharam Wohi hai jo apna mann sachcha maaney.” an oft repeated dialog in the movie translates to “Dharma / Sacred Duty is what your heart and mind feel is right”!

Eklavya, the royal guard - Amitabh, is named after the legendry character Eklavya in Mahabharata who gave up his thumb as a Guru-Dakshina/ teacher payback to Dronacharya ; Eklavya, an incredible marksman, is duty bound and zealant in protecting the royal dynasty of Devigarh. Though the King Rana Harshvardhan (Boman Irani) is just a figure head in the modern democratic state of Rajasthan in India, the formality and splendor continues so does Eklavya’s duty and family loyalty to the dynasty which has been continuing for nine generations.

After the Queen’s (Sharmila Tagore) inconvenient death, Prince Harshvardhan (Saif Ali Khan) is called for from London. He is confronted with intriguing family secrets, conspiracies, deceptions, murder plots and confusion. This is followed with murders, deaths and bloodshed for money; revenge; or dharma/duty! Finally it’s the triumph of Dharma. You will have to check out yourself which facet of dharma!

Vinod Chopra excels in making a concise and succinct movie of 1 hr 45 minutes, yet building an action packed intriguing thriller with dramatic and spectacular action sequences, smooth screenplay with no loose ends, drama and melodrama, romance and comedy, all into one impressive movie.

Eklavya is amazing in the big screen experience with its beautiful palatial settings, picturesque deserts of Rajasthan and awesome cinematography. The action scenes in the movie need a special mention- the pigeon sequence which applauds Eklavya’s marksmanship is amazing; and another scene with a large herd of camels and a moving train in the desert has incredible choreography and cinematography. The music is good and doesn’t intrude, but accentuates the story. There is only one song – ‘chande re’, which makes us appreciate the director’s film making abilities of not intercepting the movie with a string of songs.

The movie boasts a magnificent star cast- Amitabh Bachchan has a brilliant performance as the ageing royal guard. The character, look, costume, and the bloody red eyes get enlivened with his dialogues and acting. Saif Ali Khan has been giving mature and amazing performances lately, and of course the Nawab Pataudi’s son carries his princely role with grace. Sanjay Dutt, as DSP Pannalal Chohar, adds wit and humor with his cheeky dialogs and delightful presence. The untouchable turned into a man of authority was depicted well. He is a classy actor and does well in every kind of performance. Sharmila Tagore, as the queen mom is graceful in the short role as Saif’s Mom! The enchanting Vidya Balan impresses in the role of Rajjo/Rajeshwari, the chauffeurs daughter, the prince’s romantic interest and the princess Nandini’s companion. Raima Sen acts well as princess Nandini, the mentally unstable twin sister of the Prince. Boman Irani plays a complex personality with a feminine side reasonably well. Jackie Shroff plays intensely the negative role of the Rana’s covetous brother Jyotivardan. Jimmy Shergill too pulls a good job in his small role of Jyotivardans son Udayvardhan.

Eklavya is not your typical 3 hr long masala movie. The movie is commendable for its uniqueness in today’s bollywood cinema with its ability to pack everything into a crisp movie. It’s surely worth a watch on big screen. But if you forget the hype about the movie, you will appreciate it much better!

Guru- Mani Ratnam, Abhishek Bachchan, Dhirubhai Ambani!

Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Mithun Chakroborty, Madhavan,
Vidya Balan
Direction: Mani Ratnam
Genre: Drama, Biographical!
Movie Overall Rating: *** (3 stars out of 5)



‘Guru’ generally means a teacher. It gets applied to anyone who acquires followers and it is also referred to a person who has authority because of his or her perceived knowledge or skills in a domain of expertise.

Here “Guru” can be applied to Mani Ratnam, an intelligent director who excels in unique subjects for his films; Abhishek Bachchan, for his admirable acting in the complex role of a driven man, and the inspiration of this movie, the man who reached zenith from zilch, the business tycoon and founder of Reliance Industries - Dhirubhai Ambani.

Guru is a story of Gurukant Desai (Abhishek Bachchan), a villager, visionary and a winner. He is an ambitious dreamer who has vision, determination and a never ending spirit. Coming from humble origins, son of a school teacher in a village of Gujarat, he learns the worldly ways to succeed, working in Turkey. His ambition to start a business leads him to Bombay with minimal belongings, a wife (Aishwarya), brother-in-law and some money. He progresses very fast, by fair and not so fair ways. In spite of constant negative publicity from his truthful early mentor , a communist editor, Manik Das Gupta (Mithun Chakroborty) and his assistant journalist Shyam Saxena (Madhavan ) who use the power of pen and media against him. Guru still realizes many a dream in his relentless pursuit. Starting from being the first manufacturer of polyester in India to becoming the largest private sector enterprise in the country!

The life story of Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani popularly called Dhirubhai Ambani is very similar. Many focal incidents of Dhirubhai’s life become the story of Guru. The enterprising Indian entrepreneur has humble roots from Chorwad, Gujarat, who started his entrepreneurial career by selling "bhajias/fritters" to pilgrims and travelers over the weekends. He worked for few years in oil company in Aden, Yemen. He returned to India and started a textile company which imported textile from Yemen. Sensing good opportunity in the business of textiles, Dhirubhai started his first textile mill and manufactured polyester fabric. Over time his business has diversified into petrochemicals, telecommunications, information technology, energy, power, retail, textiles, infrastructure services, capital markets, and logistics.


He made millionaires out of ordinary men and first time investors, simply because they had faith in his vision and invested in the Ambani dream. - The Reliance textile IPO.

He was deterred at one point in time by his old friend Ramanath Goenka of Indian Express. The Indian Express, published articles daily against Reliance Industries and Dhirubhai which claimed that Dhirubhai was using unfair trade practices to maximize profits. The tussle ended in his stroke which paralyzed his right hand.


The man with an iron will kept going. - The Reliance Group, founded by Dhirubhai H. Ambani (1932-2002), is India's largest private sector enterprise, with businesses in the energy and materials value chain. Group's annual revenues are in excess of USD 22 billion. The flagship company, Reliance Industries Limited, is a Fortune Global 500 company and is the largest private sector company in India.

In spite of so many similarities, Guru was not publicized as a biography of Ambani, I guess to avoid getting sued from the largest Indian conglomerate for any kind of defamation!

Guru also seems inspired from Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Aviator’ starring Leonardo Di Caprio.

The Movie ‘Guru’ is Abhishek- centric all the way. His performance through out from youth to the older successful tycoon was enacted with maturity and depth. At times he clones Kamal Hassan’s ‘Nayakan’ image and even his father Amitabh. The driven roles are getting to be his forte. Lately many of his roles in other movies too have been ambitious, goal oriented, single- minded characters.


Aishwarya doesn’t play much of a role. Mithun is carving good roles in his comeback. Madhavan and Vidhya Balan had good performances in their minor roles and weak characterization. Their roles seemed heavily edited but surprisingly not the smooch! Mallika Sherawat makes a scintillating presence in a Mediterranean dance number.


The A R Rehman’s music with Gulzar’s Lyrics together made some good songs. The movie though could have done without one or two songs. Though the intention of alternating the events with songs may have been to avoid a chronicled documentary like film, but eventually it prolonged the length and slowed the pace of the movie.

It also comes with a few editing glitches. Though guru’s favorite dialogue is “I came to Bombay with 2 shirts, a wife, a brother-in-law and Rs25,000 to start a business”. The bro-in-law disappears from the story after a small tiff! Madhavan’s and Vidya Balan’s characters after getting the editing axe, lack depth and detail.

Though the movie is a cinematic excellence, it’s not a high entertainer. While most Mani Ratnam movies are commended for his balance of artistic and cinematic excellence with commercial entertainment. This movie may fall short on the entertainment factor.

The timing of the movie seems perfect and pertinent when the Indian economy is in accelerate mode due to rapid corporate growth of manufacturing and business services, and domestic and multi-national companies. Guru may inspire many an entrepreneur or even instigate questions about the reality of corporate world!