Guru (1997 film)

Guru
Directed by	Rajiv Anchal
Written by	C. G. Rajendra Babu
Starring	Mohanlal Suresh Gopi Sithara Kaveri Murali
Music by	Ilaiyaraaja
Cinematography	S. Kumar
Release date(s)	1997
Country	India
Language	Malayalam

Guru is a 1997 Malayalam-language film directed by Rajiv Anchal. Mohanlal played the lead role in the film. Nedumudi Venu, Srinivasan, Suresh Gopi, Sithara, Kaveri and Sreelakshmi star in supporting roles.

The film was chosen the only one as India's official entry to the Oscars to be considered for nomination in the Best Foreign Film category for 1997.

The screenplay and dialogue were written by C. G. Rajendra Babu, who also wrote the dialogue of the film Spadikam (1995). The music was scored by Ilaiyaraaja. The symphonic background score was conducted by Raaja using the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra, which marked the first time in Indian cinema, the background score was conducted outside the country.

Plot

Guru is a fantasy movie on the utopian concept. It is highly symbolic and makes a statement on terrorism and the evils of the world.

The story starts in small peaceful village in India. There is peace between the Hindus and the Muslims that live there. They all get along like family. Reghuraman (Mohanlal) is the son of the local Hindu temple's priest. When an ambitious politician's (played by N. F. Varghese) goons disguised as Muslims cause trouble at the local temple, tensions break out between the two communities. The tensions soon flame into a religious riot. Muslims and Hindus began killing each other. Reghuraman joins Hindu gang which is about to attack a group of Muslims who have taken refuge in a guru's asram (a place where a holy guru lived and worked). But at a point Reghuraman has an out of the world experience in the asram.

He is now in the country of the blind. He is taken to a world where everyone is blind and where people do not believe in the sense of sight. Reghuraman saves a man from death and befriends him. He is astonished by the perfect activities of the citizens. They actually believe it as a sin to think that there is a thing called sight. Their children are taught that there is no world of sight. When Reghuraman tries to tell them that there is a world of sight and that he can see, they don't believe him. They consider him evil because he can do things that they can't.

Reghuraman eats a common fruit that they have in that land. He finds out the hard way that this tasty addictive fruit is the cause of their blindness. Now that he is blind and helpless the kings soldiers, whom he had evaded before because of his sight, captures him. The king (played by Suresh Gopi) sentences him to death by drinking the extract from the seeds of the same fruit that made him blind. This form of punishment has never been given to anyone before. The seeds of the addictive fruit that Reghuraman eats is considered to be fatally poisonous. After the soldiers carry out the sentence he is left to die. But instead he sees that his blindness is cured by the seeds extract.

He then spreads the message throughout the kingdom. Some people take the seeds and experience sight. The people with sight try to take revenge on the people without sight. Reguraman stops this with a wonderful speech. In the end everyone including the king is convinced to take the fruit. He is brought back into the normal world by the Guru's spirit. Reghuraman realizes that his thirst for revenge is a sin. He stops the riot gang's plan to kill the Muslims by blasting a bomb.

Cast

• Mohanlal as Reghuraman
• Suresh Gopi as Vijayantha Maharaja
• Kaveri as Syamanthaka
• Madhupal as Ramanakan
• Murali as Abdulla Sahib
• Sithara as Vaidehi
• Sreelakshmi as Seethalakshmi
• Srinivasan as Sravanan
• Nedumudi Venu as Adyapakan

Awards

Screen Videocon Awards (South)

• Best Cinematography (South) – S. Kumar
• Best Director (Malayalam) – Rajiv Anchal
• Best Actor (Malayalam) – Mohanlal

External links

• Guru at Oneindia.in