Reviews

A film that's close to my heart. Most beautifully and artistically woven story that I was fortunate to watch during recent years. Film requires constant attention and participation. Those who go through movies without such observing concern may not be able to connect or follow & will be confused & disappointed. This is visible in some of the comments here.

A rare visual experience. This is how a film should be.

There are no comments so far. Why no one has posted anything so far? I love Jayamohan's writings and I consider 'Ezham Ulagam' as one of his major works.I wish some one like Ken Loach to film this master work. But I heard that Jeyamohan has distorted his own work to accommodate the story to suit to Tamil audience /film standards - repeating the same age old eternal Kollywood formula of good vs evil –protagonist's rampage against the evil doers. The story credit is given to bala while we all know the truth. As far as I hear most of it is cut and paste from Ezham Ulagam. If filmed in it's original narrative by a good film maker , this would have been one of the all time masterpieces of Tamil cinema. We would have got a classic like Thagazhi's Chemmeen or Ananthamurthy's Samaskara.We lack good honest film makers and critics anyway.

I have not seen the movie. So I can not give any ratings. Perhaps we will know the truth when the the hype dies down . A good movie happens to be living eternally and does not just die after the box office coffers are emptied like in the case of Dasavatharam and Sivaji. I do not consider any director who wastes film unnecessarily and also time and money as a good film maker. There is a standard set for using film / time in the art of film making. I do not want to elaborate more.

The point is, if this is a real good film it will be recognised as one around the world - that's the order of the day - world has shrunk in this digital age. If it is only the fans' noise of jubilation, it will die down to zero when the film leaves the theaters. Let's wait and see.

Maniratnam is considered one of the top directors in India. His films are money spinners. He is a clever manipulator. None of his films have originality. He cleverly adopts the story lines, scenes, even lighting and shot angles from numerous hits outside India. He may be the big box office hit giver to the film Industry in India. But he lacks honesty in film making. Guru is a pathetic attempt to palgarise the Hollywood film Aviator. It reminds you of even Citzen Kane or .. the list goes on. Through Guru's protogonist Maniratnam tries to insist that ends justify the means. The film can be seen for the excellent cinematography of Rajiv Menon. Otherwise it is a film as always with Maniratnam's other films ,pretends to deal with social and intellectual issues and fails. Maniratnam is a clever technician but not a maker of good, original cinema.