Guru (Eng: Teacher) is a 1980 Tamil-language superhero film directed by I. V. Sasi. The film features Kamal Haasan and Sridevi in the lead roles, while M. N. Nambiar, Muthuraman and Mohan Babu play supporting roles. This is India’s first superhero movie. The film opened in July 1980 to positive reviews. It was a blockbuster and completed a 365-day run at the box office. The film, a bi-lingual was made in Telugu language as well with the same title. This film is a remake of the Dharmendra-starrer superhit Hindi film Jugnu. The film was dubbed and censored in Hindi in the year 2006 with same title, Guru.
The film begins in the pre-independence era, where Raghu (R. Muthuraman) is a revolutionary who is disowned by his aristocratic father and is presumed dead while fleeing from the police. Ten years later, Raghu’s wife is shot dead by a landlord attempting to rape her and her young boy shoots the landlord in retaliation and absconds.
Several years later, the boy has grown up to be Ashok (Kamal Haasan), a rich, reputed philanthropist who runs “Parvathi Nilayam”, a shelter and institute for orphaned destitute children, named after his mother. Unknown to all except his close friend and associate Mahesh (Y. Gee. Mahendra) is the fact that to support “Parvathi Nilayam”, Ashok also masquerades as “Guru”, an elusive criminal who carries out several heists and is being hunted by the police. Meanwhile, Ashok’s grandfather has been raising an impostor, Ramesh (Mohan babu) as his grandson, who has turned out to be felonious.
Ashok meets and falls in love with a charming girl, Sujatha (Sridevi), the niece of a top police official (Major Sundarrajan), strives to win her affection and succeeds. Ashok, in the guise of Guru, also tangles with a notorious mob headed by an one-armed man (M. N. Nambiar), one of whose associates is Ramesh. Ashok also has a chance encounter with his lost father Raghu, who is now working as a professor, but Raghu conceals his identity to keep Ashok safe.
In a shocking twist, Ashok finds out that the landlord whom he had murdered as a boy was none other than Sujatha’s father and he starts rebuking Sujatha without revealing her the truth, leaving her heart-broken. Distraught and despondent, Ashok plans one last big heist to support “Parvathi Nilayam” permanently, hand it over to his friend Mahesh and seclude himself forever. Whether his plans succeed forms the rest of the story.
Directed by I. V. Sasi
Produced by Prakash R. C.
Written by Hassan Brothers
Starring Kamal Haasan, Sridevi, Muthuraman, Mohan Babu, M. N. Nambiar
Music by Ilaiyaraaja
Cinematography Jayanan Vincent
Edited by K. Narayanan
Production Shiv Sakthi Films
Release date 18 July 1980
Running time 159 minutes
Country India
Language Tamil
