MANI RATNAM'S NEXT MOVIE

If you don't know who Mani Ratnam is then you've been slacking. Bollywood's most political director he's made amazing musicals about the communal riots, suicide bombers, political kidnappings, and the Tamil Tigers. I can't tell you how many Westerners have gotten into Bollywood because they saw his exquisite, take-no-prisoners, scorched earth musical DIL SE, about a guy who falls (kinda obsessively) in love with a female suicide bomber.

His next film is GURU, set for a November 2006 release. Starring Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai, with music by the inimitable A.R. Rahman and lyrics by Gulzar (the lyrics king). It's been shooting in Turkey and is now settled back in India and no one is quite sure what the story is. They're pretty sure there's some 1960's component to it, but people are saying it's either a look at the entire life of a young couple, or that Abhishek plays a soldier in the 1857 Mutiny, or that it's the life story of textile baron Dhirubhai Ambani. See, confusion reigns. But have faith in Mani. If anyone can deliver, it's him.