Review of Guzaarish (2010) by Angie M — 21 Jan 2011

A critic said it best when he called this film a "Bhansali movie for those who don't like Bhansali movies." Any experimentation in Guzaarish is ultimately memorable only for all the things it fails to get right.

The movie tries to tackle the controversial topic of euthanasia. That the topic ended up arousing neither controversy nor sympathy is testament to the failure of SLB's vision in the movie. It is hard to be moved to tears at Ethan's plight when it is hard to follow the logic of why someone who has been such an "inspiration" and "fighter" will suddenly give up on life. SLB relies too much on Ethan's disability to evoke sympathy among the audience. Except we are then kept at arm's length from really delving into Ethan's perspective. Nobody can understand what a quadriplegic is going through; but the audience should cry on cue at every mention of disability, just the same. As if realizing that there would be many like the cynical lawyer among his audience, SLB then treats us to a scene where he equates Ethan's condition to being locked in a box. The fact that the judge allowed that kind of farce in court is one demonstration of how disingenuous the court scenes were in particular and the movie was in general.

It can be argued that "logic" isn't the strong point of SLB who delights in creating some alternate universe where different cultures and periods are syncretized, and the natural laws are those taught in the School of Bhansali. Insofar as that, Guzaarish is probably not all that different. What is different this time is that SLB gave up on his usual operatic high drama, which used to be effective in expressing in loud colors every emotion, but instead mistook incompleteness for subtlety. One symptom of that is the overall subpar performance of the cast. Perhaps robbed of his usual vision of theatrics, SLB had no idea what to do with the actors. Barring Aishwarya Rai, every character in the movie either felt wasted on a limited actor (Nafisa Ali; Shernaz Patel) or unnecessary and annoying (the characters of Rajit Kapoor and Aditya Roy Kapoor). The central figure of Ethan was the greatest loss, the culprit being both a mediocre writing and Hrithik's inability to portray anything but stock emotions. His constantly half-childish sunny disposition would be much less jarring with the theme if, again, we would have had a better understanding of the psychological route Ethan went through to reach the decision of euthanasia.

I'm hardpressed to even find anything redeeming in the "visuals," the director's usual forte. All CGI makes Guzaarish a dull movie. The only thing truly beautiful is the soundtrack, in which only "Udi" was given justice in the movie. Fair to say, SLB the director disappointed SLB the composer.