Guru, Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged…– Mani Ratnam’s Ode to Ayn Rand

My progenitor called me last week and recommended watching Guru – there might be some lessons to be learnt I was told. The tip was well-timed because the movie released in a local theatre this weekend. I came out of the hall thinking that the movie was probably the truest rendition of Ayn Rand’s works. Now that I have seen the movie I can’t help but remember in how similar a language I was recommended The Fountainhead by somebody else.

Guru was sold to the audiences as the epitome of a poor man’s indefatigable spirit and courage at a time when India was picking itself up and growing. What it ends up being is an ode to pure, unadulterated capitalism. “I was corrupt because the system made me this way”; “I know my business and the rest be damned” -- Gurukant Desai’s famous speech towards the end of the movie – words which I’m sure were supposed to swell hearts and inspire people to dream, only ends up being a poor little rich man’s rant against an unjust system. Economic growth matters and not the means to it. The movie is less about how a man’s enterprise overcomes the inevitable obstacles that were put by the License Raj and more about celebrating an industrialist’s cunning. Much like Rand’s writing style of making a straw man out of any character that opposes the individualistic and capitalistic-entrepreneurial John Galt or Howard Roarke, Mani Ratnam exaggerates the deviousness of the counter-point. In the spirit of Ayn Rand Ratnam tries to show that when Atlas shrugs the world can collapse.

We are still standing.