Like many Kamal Hassan movies, this was a movie that was under appreciated during it's release and gained it's cult status only over time. This movie has served as the inspiration behind many others with similar themes that came out decades later. It's a story of madness, obsession, tragedy and eternal love, with impeccable performances and outstanding cinematography. Guna is a movie that portrays extreme contrasts in it's subject matter. On one hand it's a love story at it's purest, where the millionaire heiress having lost both her parents by then, realizes that her crazy abductor is a much better person than the people she is surrounded by all circling her like vultures for her money, and a life with Guna seeming more meaningful to her than the life she had lived till then. On the other hand, you see the sleaziness of life in brothels, the hero having been raised in one due to his birth father abandoning his mother, and the dismal plight of the under privileged suffering from mental illness. The hero cannot bear the disgust of his existence that he convinces himself to be god Siva who has taken this birth only to be cleansed by Abhirami when they unite in marital bliss. A life riddled with mental illness, abandonment issues, and abuse, his only hope and aim being to find Abhirami so he can be cleansed and start anew with a clean slate. Illayaraja's legendary music adds more life to this already brilliant movie.
