Sanjay Leela Bhansali has always showed a strange fascination for themes built around characters afflicted with serious medical problems. Khamoshi dealt with speech-hearing deficit; Black dealt with speech-hearing-visual deficit as well as Alzheimer’s disease and now Guzaarish comes with a theme centred round Quadriplegia (paralysis of all four limbs) and goes one step further by discussing Euthanasia (mercy killing).

It is a story of Ethan Mascarhenas (Hrithik Roshan). Once acknowledged as world’s best magician Ethan is now a quadriplegic, thanks to a magic performance gone horribly wrong. For fourteen years since that unfortunate accident he has been battling the debilitating condition. Bearing it with a smile, he has been spreading the message of ‘Love thy life’ through his popular radio program.  But with years passing, organs failing and no cure in sight, he makes a decision that startles the world and his most near and dear ones. He makes a legal petition asking the court to allow him to end his life by his own choice. As his best friend Devyani (Shernaz Patel) fights his legal battle, his mother (Nafeesa Ali) supports his decision and his devoted nurse Sofia (Aishwarya Rai) opposes him tooth and nail.

Guzaarish is a film that starts off well but then the narrative rambles on with some unnecessary detours like a sub-plot of a young magician (Aditya Roy Kapoor) coming to learn magic from Ethan.  Except for Ethan, the other characters (including Sofia) are not etched out clearly. While touting it as unique love-story, there seems to a clear confusion as regards whether to focus on the euthanasia legal battle or the platonic nurse-patient romance. In the end the story does not do justice to maximizing the emotional potential of both the themes.

Hrithik Roshan’s author-backed central role comes second best to Aishwarya Rai’s not-so-well-written role. That should tell something about the lead actors’ performance and their ability! I felt as if the role needed an actor much beyond Hrithik’s range!

Still there are many good things about the film. As usual, Bhansali makes the film into a rich visual experience. The cinematography and the scene frames are brilliant. The supporting cast does a good job. There are many memorable scenes in the film but unfortunately they don’t really gel into a cohesive emotionally satisfying movie experience.  With a wishy-washy and unconvincing ending, the film fails to stand up as an enduring classic and can be just hailed as a good attempt to present a complex theme.

PS: Bhansali’s foray into music direction has evoked some over-the-top eulogies but I felt that he could have left the job to the specialists!