Guru En Aalu

Guru (Madhavan) is the ambitious assistant of his playboy boss Krishna (Abbas). Krishna is a charismatic and successful businessman who in spite of being married to Sheila (Brinda Parekh), has affairs with numerous women and relies on Guru to keep up his image of a doting husband. Guru goes along in the hope of being promoted. His goal is to become a rich man against all odds.
After seeing the model Seema (Mamta Mohandas) at a fashion show, Krishna falls for her and requests Guru to arrange opportunities to meet with her. When Guru falls in love with Seema too, he starts to purposefully sabotage Krishna's attempts to win Seema's heart. The rest of the movie determines who Seema, who is as ambitious as Guru, will choose.

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]

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]

After being completed but unreleased for one year, the film was released on 24 April 2009, opening to mixed reviews. 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]

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 Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, 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".

• Guru En Aalu at oneindia.in
• Guru En Aalu at IMDb