Guzaarish

Actors: Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai, Aditya Roy Kapoor, Monikangana Dutta, Rajit Kapoor, Shernaz Patel

Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali

Breathe a sigh of relief. During a year when cacophonic crassness masquerading as comic entertainment has been sanctioned by critics and the masses, "Guzaarish" comes along to remind us that excellence is alive in our cinema.

Ironically this wonderful work of art, nuanced and magical in its portrayal of an unstoppable spirit's quest to juice life to its fullest, is about dying. If the journey towards death in art can be so mystically explored, then let's embrace mortality as a stepping stone to immortality and a film about dying as a sign of cinema not dying on us. Not yet. Only those who suffer the numbing pain of isolation would know what it feels like. Dilip Kumar in "Devdas", Guru Dutt in "Pyasa", Meena Kumari in "Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam" and Nutan in "Bandini" communicated to the audience the indescribable pain of solitude. Ethan, as played by Hrithik Roshan in "Guzaarish", is so bemused by adversity that he can actually look at his own suffering with dispassionate humor.

"Guzaarish" is a joyous, rapturous and ecstatic celebration of life. Those familiar with the art of Sanjay Leela Bhansali know how ably and ecstatically he transports his characters into a universe of seamless drama played at an octave where most cinematic symphonies crack up and topple over into high-pitched extravagance. Not Bhansali's cinema. Played at the highest possible scale, his drama unfolds in wave after wave of rapturous splendor. His characters occupy a space that defies definition and seduces audiences into celebrating a state of sublimity and splendor. Ethan's inert physicality is alchemized into an ambience of animated joy. His spirit dances and sings at the sheer pleasure of every moment that is given to him to live. He radiates joy. We feel his profound happiness at the gift of life.

No film in living memory has brought out the sheer blessing of being alive with such spirit and glory. While Shah Rukh Khan's "Devdas" in Bhansali's opulent opera was a character broken in spirit, Hrithik's Ethan in "Guzaarish" is irreparably damaged in body. But his spirit soars, his eyes light up like thousands of stars every time Sophie walks in.

That Sophie is played by Aishwarya Rai is a stroke of genius that goes a long way in giving "Guzaarish" its flavour of exceptional elegance. No other director brings out the quiet grace and the understated beauty of this screen diva's personality with as much intelligence and spontaneity as Bhansali. In "Guzaarish", Aishwarya is far more delicate and nuanced in conveying the unspoken pain of a love that has no tomorrow than she was in "Devdas".

Aishwarya imbues her role with a resplendent grace. Love in "Guzaarish" is expressed with subtle smirks, gentle smiles and hints of a smothered passion that could erupt any time, if only destiny didn't choose to be so mean to the spirited. The scenes between Ethan and Sophie, the backbone of Ethan's spine-challenged life, radiate an inner beauty and wisdom and underline the director's enormous understanding of the self-negation that a love relationship requires.

"Guzaarish" is Bhansali's most tender and evocative film to date. It layers the pain of a dying body with the passion of an unstoppable spirit as manifested in Hrithik's skilled and effortless performance as a quadriplegic who pledges to make every moment of his limited "sau gram zindagi" pleasurable for himself an those around him.

Barring Amitabh Bachchan in "Black" there has never been a better performance in a Bhansali film than Hrithik's in "Guzaarish". He grabs Ethan's role and makes the dying character come alive in delightful waves of provocative histrionics. And if we're talking chemistry between Hrithik and Aishwarya, then let's get one thing clear this ain't "Dhoom". It's something far deeper and satisfying. The other performance that catches your attention is Aditya Roy Kapoor's. He is natural and vivacious and in-sync with the film's spirit of celebrating life. Monikangna Dutt is a looker. In her limited space, she lends some appeal to the proceedings. Suhel Seth, Shernaaz Patel and Rajit Kapur also make a lingering impact in a film that you carry home with you in an inviolable place in your heart.

A word about Bhansali's music score. The songs communicate the rich tapestried emotions of lives that are determined to smile through an extraordinary tragedy. Every piece of music and song in "Guzaarish" echoes the film's incandescent soul. The film's technical excellence, particularly Sudeep Chatterjee's cinematography, is not dazzling and flamboyant in the way it was in "Devdas". In "Guzaarish", the appeal is far more delicate and subtle. The deep but sober colours on screen reach out to you to enrich your life in ways that cinema was always meant to, until it was waylaid by the hooligans and imposters posing as filmmakers.

His hair’s smartly tousled, beard elegantly unkempt. Neither his jovial mood swings nor the occasional, charming smiles on his face give out a body below that’s entirely paralysed: numb to touch or any external stimuli. He’s stuck in a “4 by 6 bed, in a 15 by 20 room, can’t tell whether he's passing stool or urine.” He’s a “vegetable”, as it were. It’s been 14 long years. Long enough, one could suppose, depending on how you view these things. He wants out, and argues for his own mercy killing for his own freedom at last, with all its intrinsic ironies. Javier Bardem, arguably the Marlon Brando of our times, stunningly played this role in the Spanish Alejandro Amenabar’s The Sea Inside (2004) a film that picked up all the possibly top foreign film trophies that year (Oscar, Golden Globe, Venice).

Let’s not hear any more rubbish on this movie not being a direct inspiration. Bhansali’s Guzaarish is as much The Sea Inside as his Black was Arthur Penn's The Miracle Worker (1962). A whole lot. And yet, not wholly. Saawariya, of course, was altogether another story. Hrithik Roshan, our own ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ plays one Ethan Mascerenhas, once a crazy magician, now a lifeless quadriplegic, and at several moments a bit of a hunky Javier Bardem himself; in squared red shades, under a vast grey sky. At his age, I suppose, he’s the best we’ve got. You can tell, the actor’s desperately aiming for major awards (the sort of acclaim Amitabh Bachchan earned for himself with Black). Thankfully the effort doesn’t show. Earnestness does.

Sophia (Aishwarya) is Ethan’s young nurse of 12 years, dutiful to a fault. He occasionally ribs her for not showing him her legs. This bawdily naughty humour is entirely European by birth. Theirs is stuff unlikely, quirky romances are made of. It’s still not the core of the film. You figure this when you still notice more her gorgeous self, than her strangely deep devotion toward a half-dead man. This is expected from a film where aesthetics overpower everything else. Ethan, the nurse, a few maids, and a young aspiring magician (Aditya Roy Kapoor) who Ethan tutors: all of them live in a magnificently kept villa in Goa, the part of India that comes closest to Spain itself.

Each shot is worth a photograph in frame. Bhansali is no doubt an aesthete. His imagination is evidently a massive indoor dream on a palette that consistency changes colour tones with every film. This picture in darkish blue is no different, and for most parts a mix of fine choreography and grand magic, bits that are certainly a nod to Christopher Nolan’s Prestige. Given Bhansali’s love for dreams, I guess, he could also consider an adaptation of Inception, Mr Nolan’s ambitious latest work! Ethan recalls his magic shows from back in the day. He should’ve packed stadiums. He performed instead at extended restaurants; slid up and down rays of sunlight; levitated as the flicker of the candle-light levitated with him. The images are sensational, stunning. Unfortunately, the music (composed by Bhansali himself) doesn’t add to the magic. There’s an issue if Louis Armstrong’s What A Wonderful World is at best the only song on your lips when you step out of the theatre; everything else, eminently forgettable. But that’s a minor quibble.

The scale more than makes up for the music, and that’s because Bhansali truly delivers on the auteur’s promise. He is the last few of the movie mughals whose vision goes beyond a wank alone. His daring investors, I’m told, pretty much shut shop after his films release (Sony after Saawariya; Kumaramangalam Birla’s Applause after Black; Bharat Shah after Devdas). He remarkably carries on. This is rare in the most Right Wing of all arts.

Yet, somehwhere the paints from his brushes take you further away from the characters. You wish to dive deeper into their internal recesses. Ethan hosts a popular radio show, where he seeks opinion on his proposed mercy killing ‘Project Ethanasia’, he calls it, for euthanasia (the oldest inter-school debate, along with capital punishment). Courts agree to hear the matter. Both sides are equally loaded. You want to either root for Ethan's right to life or his right to death. You never feel persuaded towards either.

Here’s a crippled, helplessly defeated man asking for a final say in his own fate. The state, family or loved ones can never be better placed to figure an individual’s suffering, or his lost hope. You want to feel a lump in your throat. The effort’s in place. You’re almost there. But the distance is still annoying. Being mesmerised by the beauty of the big screen isn’t always such a great thing. You get overwhelmed at first; leave slightly under-whelmed, eventually. That's the story of this otherwise fine film.

Guzaarish is yet another magical representation of stories by filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali. The trailers of the movie have dismayed many Hrithik Roshan fans when they saw him sitting on a wheel chair as no one wants to see their superstar like that. But Bhansali has kept the mystery a secret till you catch a show of the flick which has released today at a theater near you.Here, you will see the magician Ethan Mascarenhas (Hrithik Roshan) whipping his magical wand while utilizing his amazing dancing steps.

Bhansali has made use of both the acting as well as dancing talent of the lead actors of the film, Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai. Apart his signatory grand sets and music, Bhansali has presented the story with a deep emotional touch. You will cry with Ethan, who remains locked inside his grand palace in Goa for fourteen long years following the failure of one of his magic trick. Following the incident, Ethan turns quadriplegic and loses interest in life but at the same time he runs a radio show called ‘radio zindagi’.

With the years of experience, the magical chemistry between Hrithik and Aishwarya has strengthened and that will be reflected in the emotional as well as romantic and funny scenes of the movie. Unlike, the usual life nurses, the beauty queen, who plays nurse to Ethan, will be seen on a floor length skirt. The color combination of the costumes gives a different and unique touch along with the wonderful music given by the director himself.

Expected the unexpected from the Sawariyaa maker and have an out of the world feeling watching Guzaarish this weekend. Shernaz Patel as the lawyer friend of Hrithik’s character, justifies her part and Rajat Kapoor as the opposing advocate, gives the same kind of performance to match her. On behalf of her client, Patel’s character asks ‘euthanasia’ for her client Ethan.