Guzaarish
Guzaarish is the last thing you would expect from Bhansali given the recent past. Bhansali received a lot of acclaim for Black along with box office success. This meant that Bhansali followed it up with Saawariya which according to me saw Bhansali experiment the most as a director. It was a movie where Bhansali painted like an artist with unabashed freedom. It even had an out of the box ending which for me added a lot to the film and showed where Bhansali was coming from. He expressed himself and must have thought that given people liked Black, Indian audiences would love Saawariya as well. However, Saawariya didn't receive box office success or critical acclaim. Well, I loved Saawariya for many different reasons and I will try to analyze the film in detail in a future post after I re-watch the movie.
Any ways, given the failure of Saawariya, you would expect Bhansali to go back to some thing like Devdas. It certainly would have been very tempting given how much box office success means survival in mainstream bollywod. Instead, Bhansali went back to his roots. He shot a large part of the film in Goa, where he shot his debut film, the sensitive and beautiful Khamoshi. Bhansali must adore Goa and there isn't any thing wrong with that. Goa is one of the most well loved destinations of India by Indians but putting the spotlight on Goa and more importantly local Goan culture is the first sign Bhansali isn't really that interested in the the box office with this film. His characters are mostly christian (as many people in Goa are) and aspects of Goa are shown like songs and dresses (the one Aishwarya Rai wears in the last scene to the last detail including a neck piece is as local as one can get).
I don't think Bhansali spent extravagantly on the making of the film (I am guessing here). The sets don't look cheap and they do have an artistic air about them but they aren't very lavish which is a good thing because such a film will definitely do poorly at the box office. I talked with a lot of people before the release of this film and not even one person was interested in seeing this film. After it becomes more widely known that the film is about euthanasia, I am sure even more people will shy away.
In the same way as a main stream figure like Aamir Khan is applauded for making/supporting films like Taare Zameen Par, Peepli [Live], Bhansali needs to be applauded here for going against industry norms and making a film he wants to make and going the route of artistic expression rather than trying to make a huge amount of money.
Coming to the film, Ethan Mascarenhas (played by Roshan) loves life. He has inspired people who wanted to die to see life in a new way, has even written a book which is very inspirational for people with disability. Indeed, the thing which you characterize most with the protagonist is that he is always laughing and smiling. When he goes outside after ages, he asks Rai to take his hat off so that he can feel the air brush against his hair. He looks at the trees, the sky and the landscape and marvels at them. Indeed, it is this love for life which frustrates him. He sees children playing football and there is a pain and anguish in his eyes at his inability to do the same.
He loved his assistant who helped him during his magic performances but asked her to leave him after his accident. It is some thing which would eat him up no end. It his inability to live life as a normal person with fast deteriorating condition and no real hope of recovery which causes him the deepest frustration. I thought this aspect wasn't dwelled into as much as it should have been. We are made aware that he has dialysis done and his various ailments but we aren't shown him suffering through them. The most you get is a leaked roof meaning he has to endure raindrops falling on his head all night, which I am sure, would be very tough to handle but it isn't a problem one has to go through on a day to day basis.
The arguments Rajit Kapoor makes as the lawyer against euthanasia are very childish and dumbs down the film. He should have made pro-life points instead of attacking the various people in Roshan's life. It is also unexplained how the common man who is against the idea of euthanasia start rallying behind Roshan enmasse.
Lastly, the worst part was the marrying of Roshan and Rai. I thought regarding this. Rai is shown to be some one who is in love with Roshan (the right path would have been to show Rai as a selfless individual in my opinion). However, Roshan is some one who loved some one else. So it is as if Roshan is thanking Rai in his own way. Another perspective, which would be the obvious way to think, would be that he has now started loving Rai. Whatever it is, I think it was a poor concept and some thing we could have done without.
A lot of flaws and I can carry on regarding minor points. I mean what is Suhel Seth doing crying all the time. What is Suhel Seth doing at all in a movie? What is the point of the character who wants to learn magic from Roshan or indeed about the evil magician who was the competitor of Roshan.
I must say, however, that I liked the movie despite all this. Roshan and Rai are both excellent in their roles. It is a pretty good watch. I would give it a 6.5/10. I think it would be pretty cringe worthy if you try to watch it again though given the gaping holes in the plot and lack of cohesion and tightness in the script and arguments. In the end though, you have to admire Bhansali for going for a topic like this even though he wasn't able to pull it off.
) and they will appreciate this movie a lot. However, the others may not find this movie very appealing despite it being a great film. Harry Potter films have kept improving from the first few films being very poor to the last few being pretty good. The last couple of films by Yates were excellent but given that huge books were covered in 150 minutes or so, they appeared rushed. The last book is being made over two films, so gives a lot of time to tell the story.
