Mani Ratnam defends sympathetic portrayal of crooked tycoon

INDIA: Indian movie-maker Mani Ratnam defended his latest biopic “Guru” for its sympathetic portrayal of a tycoon who doesn’t hesitate to break the law to reap profit.

Some reviewers interpreted the film as justifying the use of unfair tactics, so long as it creates shareholder wealth.

Ratnam, in Bangalore to attend an industry conference on the need for ethics in business, accepted that the Gurukant Desai, played by Abhishek Bachchan, is morally ambiguous.

“Yeah, but that’s the protagonist’s point of view,” the 50-year-old director said, visibly bristling. “... doesn’t mean you have to follow it.

“If you are making a film about a particular person, you have to get into his shoes,” said Ratnam.

Critics have drawn parallels between Dhirubhai Ambani, who founded the giant conglomerate Reliance Industries that enriched millions of shareholders and died in July 2002, and Desai.

Like Ambani, Desai is born in the western Indian state of Gujarat to a schoolmaster, goes abroad to work in the oil business and returns home after 10 years to start his own company with 15,000 rupees of seed capital.

Desai doesn’t hesistate to cut corners as he goes on to build his business, the Shakti Group, into one of the country’s biggest companies.

Ratnam has however denied basing the story on Ambani’s life.

The climax has Desai, recovering after a paralytic stroke, justifying to a court numerous breaches of the law to build his Shakti Group by pointing to the wealth he created for people.

The court finds Desai him guilty of two minor violations.

Bangalore, Friday, AFP