Guru En Aalu

Guru En Aalu (English: Guru my man) is a 2009 Tamil romantic comedy film directed by Selva. The film was a remake of Aziz Mirza's hindi film Yes Boss starring Shahrukh Khan which itself was loosely based on Hollywood film For Love Or Money. It stars Madhavan, Abbas, Mamta Mohandas, Vivek and Brinda Parekh in the lead role. Through this movie, Abbas and Madhavan teamed up for the third time after Minnale and the Kannada movie Shanti Shanti Shanti. The film, which had been under production since late 2007, released in April 2009 to mixed reviews. It was an average grosser at the box office.

Plot

Guru (Madhavan) wants to start a company of his own. He works for his boss Krishna (Abbas), who is a successful entrepreneur leading a happy married life. But the major problem for Krishna is his playboy nature. Guru hopes that his boss will help him set up a company so that he can also become a boss and make money. Therefore he does everything to please him.

Krishna falls for a model Seema (Mamta Mohandas). Interestingly Guru also romances Seema. But coming to know that his boss is behind the girl, he decides to give up his romance to attain his personal goals. He goes hammer and tongs ensuring that Seema gets close with Krishna. But after a sequence of events, he realises that he yearns and craves for Seema. Did he give up his love for making it big in life or go hammer and tongs to hold Seema’s hands forms the climax.

Cast

• Madhavan as Guru
• Abbas as Krishna
• Mamta Mohandas as Seema
• Vivek as Aasana Azhagappan/"Lassi" Latha
• Brinda Parekh as Sheila
• M. S. Baskar as Gopal
• Sona Heiden as Suguna
• Mayilsamy as director
• Pattimandram Raja as Guru's father
• Renuka as Guru's mother
• Poovilangu Mohan as Seema's father
• Aarthi as Guru's sister
• Thambi Ramaiya as Krishna's lawyer
• Manobala as a traffic inspector
• Mohan V. Raman as Sheila's father
• Sharmilee as Sowbhagya
• Cell Murugan as rowdy
• Shobha as Cell murugan's sister

Production

Development

Mamta Mohandas and Madhavan, as seen at the launch of the film.

Following the release of his home production, Evano Oruvan, in December 2007, Madhavan announced his intentions on remaking the 1997 Hindi language film, Yes Boss, which starred Shahrukh Khan and Juhi Chawla in the lead roles. The director, a remake specialist, Selvah was assigned to direct the movie which was to be produced by KRG, one of the veteran producers and President of South Indian Film Chamber.^[2]

Following cast selection and story adjustions, the film had its launch on 2 May 2008, with only Madhavan and Mamta Mohandas among the cast attending at a small ceremony at Adyar, Chennai.^[3] Shooting for the film started at Chennai in May 2008 and continued in various locations in Kerala. Another schedule was filmed at overseas locations, primarily in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.^[4][5] The introductory song for Madhavan was shot at the AVM Studios in Vadapalani, Chennai with several extras, choreographed by Babu.^[6]

Casting

The casting process took four months for the director and producer to settle. Initially it was expected that Nayantara would appear opposite Madhavan in the lead role, however Nayantara opted out due to involvements in bigger projects such as Kuselan, Aegan and Villu.^[7] Sameera Reddy was briefly linked to the role,^[8] but eventually Mamta Mohandas claimed the lead female role, portraying a model. Jayaram was initially announced to portray a role in the film, but pulled out at the last moment and was replaced by Abbas, and another cast member is Vivek, whom both re-unite with Madhavan after the 2001 blockbuster, Minnale.^[9][10] Another actress, Brinda Parekh, was soon after signed up to play the role of Abbas's pair in the film.^[11] A string of supporting cast members were selected among those being Sona Heiden, Poovilangu Mohan, Mayilsamy, Pattimandram Raja, Manobala, M. S. Baskar, Meera Krishnan and Aarthi.^[4][12]

Apart from Selvah, who directs the film, the cinematographer for the project is Senthil Kumar, whilst the editor is National Award winner V. T. Vijayan. The dialogues for Aziz Mirza's script is handled by L. Venkatesan, director of Jithan Ramesh starrer Nee Venunda Chellam and lyrics are written by Pa. Vijay, Kabilan and Pazhani Bharathi. Srikanth Deva is the music director for the film, renewing his association with Selvah, whom both were crew members of Selvah's previous venture, Thotta.^[4]

Release

After being unreleased for one year, the film was finally released on 24 April 2009.

Critical reception

Behindwoods wrote:"So that’s precisely the USP of Guru En Aalu. Comedy! If you don’t mind a few odd screen minutes while the lead characters trundle their way through a familiar script".^[13] Sify claimed that it is "nowhere near the original which was technically superior with super hit songs and locales".^[14] Nowrunning wrote:"disappoints on all counts".^[15] Rediff wrote:"If you're looking for a re-creation of a feel-good candy-floss romance, then Selva's shoddy screenplay [sic] is likely to prove quite a drag".^[16] Hindu called it "typical commercial cocktail" and concluded that "If you have watched the original you are bound to be perplexed by unnecessary additions in the Tamil version that drag the film down to deplorable levels".^[17]

Soundtrack

The film has six songs composed by Srikanth Deva collaborating with director Selva for second time after Thotta. Lyrics are by three eminent poets - Pa. Vijay, Kapilan and Pazhanibharathy whilst the songs are choreographed by Kalyan, Sridhar and Dinesh. The film's songs were released at a low-key function in Chennai on 26 September 2008. Majority of the BGM scores in this movie were lifted from popular Hindi movies like Rang de Basanti, Salaam Namaste, No Entry and Om Shanti Om.^[18] "Spun" by Flipsyde is used in the song Chellame Chellame, and "Bebot" by The Black Eyed Peas forms the background score of the whole movie, "Ek Din Aap" from original hindi film Yes Boss has been lifted here as "Kadhal Kannadiyil".

Difference between Yes Boss and Guru En Aalu

• In hindi version, hero's only family member was his mother while in Tamil version hero has father, mother, sister.
• Hero's friend had less prominence in hindi version but in Tamil version he has equal importance (courtesy comedy scenes)
• Characterization of Madhavan, Mamta, Abbas and mayilsamy is same as hindi version.
• Sequences in song "Chellame" are lifted from hindi songs "Main koi aisa geet" (Yes Boss) (from which the song is based on) and "Suno na" (Chalte Chalte).

References

External links

• Guru En Aalu at oneindia.in