Guzaarish

Well, the movie was really engaging and brilliantly made. Haven't seen an Indian movie with so much depth and purpose, and believe me I mean it. I loved it.

I was reading some reviews, while 90% of reviews were positive, the remaining 10% reviews were truly conspiring against this movie. And would you believe when I say that many teenage girls have actually questioned Bansali's lack of use of Colors, Dancing and Singing. Well, they are teenagers and what can you expect from teenage girls other than singing-dancing romantic moods which they expect to be reality.

Reality, my friends, is quite different from the nutty gritty rom-coms like Dilwale Dulhaniya Lejanyenge, where a hero(no pun intended) comes flying, singing, dancing and just takes away the girl with him. This is not what reality is like. Reality is painful and we better open up our eyes and face it.

This movie is all about Reality, how a Guy faces all odds and decides to die with dignity. This is what is Guzarish. This is what Bansali has created--A Grayish World full of colors of human emotions and magic. Hats Off. Nuff said.

This is one of the best performance by Hrithik, wonderfully woven, every frame by frame, by Sanjay. Aishwarya is good, much better than her previous performances this year, Shernaz Patel and Suhel Seth performed brilliantly in their roles. Aditya Roy Kapoor needs special mention too. He is also outstanding and shows good promises as a forthcoming good actor to watch out for. Overall the movie is excellent. Hrithik once again proves why he is in the top league of actors today, excelling in all fields, be it acting, dancing emoting....just about everything. I am just too amazed by the movie and especially by the performance of Hrithik. He is totally a magician, both in the movie as well as in his acting.....My GUZAARISH.........please go and watch this movie guys and gals.....u will love it.

A memorable movie that follows the daily emotional, and mental, anguishes of a quadriplegic dealing with the deterioration of his internal organs. With the love of his mother, he inspired to strive above all else, just by being content that he survived an awful accident ten years before. Now, after several years, the state of his body is declining and Ethan is no longer feeling the contentment of being alive, or of being free from all restraints (physical or otherwise). He seeks the assistance of his best friend, Devyani, to petition the courts for the rights of euthanasia. Due to cultural beliefs, he is denied that individual basic right. With the love of friends and his beloved Sofia, he continues to battle the struggles. Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali (whom once again excels in a highly compelling film). Brilliant portrayal of a character that is dealing with not only moral, and social, issues and aspects, but is dealing with a human being's right to his own free choices, and own will power. Powerful story plot that follows with an array of amazing character performances. Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Shernaz Patel, Suhel Seth, Aditya Roy Kapoor, and Nafisa Ali. Definitely worthy! "Break the rules. Forgive quickly. Kiss slowly. Love deeply. Laugh uncontrollably. And never regret anything that made you smile." ~Ethan Mascarenhas.

Hrithik Roshan didn't have much luck at the box office with Kites earlier this year (curiously some attested to Kites containing a lot of English which turned the local Indian audiences off, but this film also featured a fair bit of dialogue in the English language), but I still reckon that he's an actor of his generation to look out for. Ethan Mascarenhas is perhaps his most challenging role to date, as we know Hrithik for his physicality and his gracefulness in dance, but his obvious character condition here limits the former as we see how slight his frame is, clearly allowing his built to be slimmed down to portray the role more convincingly as a man whose muscles are wasted through inaction and atrophy. As for the prerequisite dances, the film allowed some moments in flashbacks where he shows off some graceful moves as a magician with a class act in presentation and packaging his brand of magic, further cementing Hrithik's reputation as one of the heroes of Bollywood who can actually dance.

But what he aced in his role is how he convincingly portrays his immobility, relying very much on his facial expressions to bring across a wide spectrum of emotions. There's an added air of eccentricity and mood swings as expected of a man who gets handed lemons by Fate, so what best than to try and make lemonade from the situation, sharpening his wits in the process, since quick fire repertoire is something he can do, other times the scenarios constantly remind him how helpless he is without his caretaker by his side, and Hrithik shows this vulnerable side of him best. Not only that, Hrithik Roshan too lends his vocals to What a Wonderful World, which will probably delight his legion of fans.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan also has Guzaarish to thank in bringing out her best performance for this year, peppered by films such as Raavan, Endhiran and Action Replayy. While Endhiran was essentially Superstar Rajnikanth's starrer and didn't really challenge Aishwarya with the role she had to play, Raavan and Action Replayy were roles that were pushing those boundaries but the box office responses didn't quite match to expectations. I'll put my hand up to say she's back at her best as Sofia De Souza, the nurse who makes tremendous sacrifices in order to ease the suffering of Ethan, who got taken aback by his decision that will of course mean an end to her services and that notion of being emotionally slighted. There's always a touch of tenderness in her care of her patient, and that romantic tension constantly underneath.

Sofia De Souza is typically prim and proper, and has a rather curious, lush wardrobe for a nurse - a point brought up later on by the public prosecutor Vipin Patel (Rajit Kapoor), though Aishwarya provided that tell tale spunk in Sofia with her (also much talked about) experiment with the cigarette, and the letting of her hair down in the song number Udi, sung by Sunidhi Chauhan and Shaul Hada, which stands out as one of my favourites in the film for that unmistakable Spanish influence. Joining her in the film is fellow Action Replayy alumni and Bollywood rookie Aditya Roy Kapoor (lucky him, to have made two debut films side by side with Aishwarya) whose Omar Siddique aspires to be Ethan's protégé, and goes to great lengths to being accepted and inevitably becoming a part of the extended family, which includes Ethan's mom Isabel (Nafisa Ali) and Dr Nayak (Suhei Seth).

But the real hero of the production, has got to be writer director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who has bounced back from what many thought was a disappointment with Saawariya (which I begged to differ), weaving such a beautiful, sensitive tale without relying on melodrama or sensationalizing its main topic of Euthanasia. Flashbacks are used to effectively tell of Ethan's entire backstory leading up to and including a cringe inducing accident scene, and the pacing well done with the non-intrusive use of musical numbers to add to the narrative, without feeling forced. Bhansali has a keen eye to exploit the beautiful sets and through wonderful framing, light and shadow play, elevated Guzaarish into a film that's aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

As the adage goes, it's easier to ask for forgiveness than to seek permission, and the main crux of the plot deals with Ethan and friends trying to push through the legal system to allow him to die at his own will. If there's a blip in the film it will be the treatment of the courtroom scenes, which was necessary to allow Ethan outside the confines of his physical prison, but addressed issues more so on the surface and rarely scratched the content deep down. It piques your interest to evaluate circumstances if you were to put yourself in Ethan's shoes, but rarely goes beyond that fleeting thought in the mind.

But as mentioned, at least it didn't degenerate into over the top silliness, keeping itself in check most of the time in seriousness, and allowing the top notch performances to continue to engage, with a number of side characters appearing to reinforce certain aspects of Ethan's life and add an expanded dimension to a man unfortunately cut down at his prime. It reminds us again to live life for what it is and to appreciate it to the max, and Sanjay Leela Bhansali has this beautifully crafted film to tell us just that. Highly recommended, and it goes into my shortlist as a possible addition amongst the best this year has to offer. It looks like the Hrithik-Aishwarya partnership continues its success.

GUZAARISH Once again, and after a long time according to my standards, we got an opportunity to be amongst the first few to have watched the first public screening of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's newest venture, GUZAARISH. And two hours later, when I came out of the theatre with a lump in the throat, I couldn't but marvel at this outstanding creation on celluloid. Co-produced by UTV along with Sanjay Leela Bhansali, this clearly is Bhansali's best directorial effort till date. The theme is novel, at least in the Indian film scene and beautifully portrays a wide range of emotions. Love and caring; frustration and angst; helplessness and joy; anger and exhilaration are all presented with such finesse and perfection that it is difficult, well, nigh impossible to visualize as to how these emotions could have been better depicted on the screen. The other primary reason for the movie's powerful impact is that the ensembles of actors deliver their finest performances. Hritik Roshan, excels in his role of the magician performer turned quadriplegic and his eyes speak tomes of his inner feelings. Aishwarya Rai reveals that she can act, and wonderfully well, provided the script calls for it and if she has an able director to direct her efforts. The rest of the cast including the versatile Shernaz Patel, the debutante Aditya Roy Kapoor, the theatre personality Vijay Crishna (who is an Executive Director in one of the Godrej companies) and the graceful Nafisa Ali put in stellar performances. I will be most surprised if the cast members do not pick up more than a handful of awards. The music is also by Bhansali and while the few songs may not be chart busters, the background score is operatic in its expanse and adds to the mood of the various scenes. The dialogues are pithy and meaningful and couched in them are a number of philosophical statements. Bhansali's skill lies in making these not sound like drab monologues. I was reminded of the Hrishikesh Mukherjee directed and Amitabh-Rajesh Khanna starrer Anand whenever there were pathos tainted expressions of philosophy being mouthed on the screen. And just like it happened to me when I first saw Anand about three decades back, I was moved to tears in a few scenes; tears of a kind which do not cause uncontrollable sobbing, but which moisten one's eyes and leave you with a feeling of restrained, and quietly dignified expressions which speak louder than a thousand words. Bhansali's treatment of Euthanasia is without any melodrama whatsoever and this heightens the impact. Even the last scene is reminiscent of another Hrishikesh Mukerjee film: MILI; you know what is to follow, but still are left with the faint trickle of wishful optimism. Bhansali has proved that he can recover and recover well from his earlier blue themed disaster Saawariya, although the abundance of blue hues in a few scenes leave us with no doubt about the director's favourite color. Aishwarya looks stunning as well, and although her low cut dress is not what I have seen any nurse wearing, perhaps Bhansali intended it so as to provide some relief to the bed-chained hero! Ram Gopal Verma, who apparently has commented about his not liking her washing Hritik's hair needs to be reminded that Aishwarya looks more sensuous than all his pouting and pelvic thrusting heroines! Although GUZAARISH in the movie refers to the hero's deep desire to be freed from his state, it could also convey the GUZAARISH of every sick person to be nursed by a person like Aishwarya!!