Movie Review - Guna

Did I hear you say this review is 17 years too late? Well, blogs did not exist during my 8th std days (thats when the movie was released and yes, I am OLD). Anyway, isnt it always better late than never?

I had time to kill during the weekend, and I had to feed my Thamizh cinema cravings. I absolutely could not watch another movie starring self proclaimed "little" superstars, "megastars", "thalapathis" etc. So I decided to go back to the real deal, to a time when there were two real superstars. I watched Guna again.

Kamal is always guilty of making movies far ahead of their time (recent examples - Hey Ram, Anbe Sivam) and the box office punishes him for his efforts. Guna is one such movie - very few people appreciated it when it was released, plus, the timing was really bad. Guna was released the same day as Maniratnam's classic Thalapathi with Rajnikanth. However, commercial success or not, Guna is a brilliant movie, and its small flaws can be forgiven.

The story:
Its about Guna - an "obsessive psycho neurotic". He is totally delusional. He somehows believes that under his scarred exterior lies pure divine goodness, and he is no different from Siva himself. And he believes that he will meet his Abirami (Parvathi) someday and she will elevate him from the squalor of his surroundings and it will be a divine union of souls. He does end up meeting a girl, convinces himself that she is his Abirami and abducts her. Many plot twists later, does she end up reciprocating his love? Do they live happily every after?

The performances:
Kamal is the God of acting. He makes you fall in love with his character...Guna is annoying, endearing, childlike, and mostly nuts, and he still makes you root for him. You want the heroine to fall in love with him and your heart breaks for him in the final scenes. The heroine Roshini is very pretty. There is a certain innocence to her face, and you can see why Kamal so readily falls for her. She didnt really act in any movies after that did she?

The music:
1992 was Illayaraja's last golden year (Rahman's Roja was released the next year). I remember traveling to Ooty and Coimbatore before Diwali that year, and literally, every patti thotti was playing Thalapathi and Guna endlessly. Guna's songs were mostly situational - you would not really want to play them in your car stereo, but watched along with the movie, his songs are brilliant.

Though Kanmani anbodu is everybody's favorite, I loved Partha vizhi paartha padi. The whole movie is about this concept of divine, other-worldly love, and this song totally nails it. The percussion sequence towards the end of the song for the Shiva Parvathi thaandavam is brilliant. Even more divine is the background score in Raagam Hamsanadham, just before the song starts. This is when Kamal falls in love with his "Abirami" and this tune is repeated throughout the rest of the movie whenever Kamal is overwhelmed by his emotions. The chorus during the movie's ending is especially haunting. If not for anything else, Ilayaraja's back ground score is a good enough reason to watch the movie.

The classic scenes:
Despite being a commercial failure, Guna has found a place in the history of Thamizh cinema for some fantastic scenes.

- Kamal in his doctor's office during a therapy session - He whips himself into a frenzy, rapidly pacing round and round a tiny room, describing his fantasy of living on a cold moutain with the smell of his medicine and his Abirami. The camera picks up dizzying speed, your heart beats in tandem, and the scene comes to an abrupt end with Kamal crashing into the room's door. Brilliant!

- Another beautiful scene is when Kamal thinks his mother is dead, and then finds her hale and hearty. He cries with relief, love and anger (at being lied to), and you cry because he didnt get an Oscar for that scene!

- "Manidhar unarndhu kolla idhu manidha kaadhal alla...." Kamal's voice, the Guna caves in Kodaikanal, the wonderful camera work...sigh...

- "Abirami sonna pournami dhaan" - The heroine wants Kamal to marry her, he insists they wait till the full moon. She does not want to wait and she tells him that it is Pournami. He immediately agrees and says "Abirami sonna pournami dhaan" (if Abirami says so, it is the full moon then). The dialogue ends there, but I really like the reference to the Abirami Andhadhi here. The scene alludes to the events surrounding Abirami Battar - a saint who was a true devotee of the Goddess. In response to his pleas, when he was singing the verses of Abirami andhadhi, the goddess flung her earring into the sky and the new moon night turned into a full moon night. The movie has other references to Abirami Andhadhi - the songs Partha vizhi has a few lines (Idam kondu vimmi..) and Kamal repeats these same lines in the climax. Thamizh vaazhga, adhai valartha Kamal vaazhga!

Ofcourse, the movie does have flaws. It is too long, there is a lot of crying, SPB's coughing and wheezing is plain annoying and the Unnai naan ariven song is way too long and depressing. These flaws aside, the movie is a brave attempt and stays true to its story - about love that is beyond the understanding of mere mortals. The movie also ended up beyond the understanding of most Thamizh audiences. Sigh....