Dead End

CAST: Hrithik Roshan,Aishwarya Rai Bachchan,Aditya Roy Kapoor,Shernaz Patel,Monikangana Dutta,Nafisa Ali

rating: **

A quadriplegic,confined to his bed for many years,has a chhoti si guzaarish: he wants to be allowed to end his life. That’s the thrust of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s new film. Ethan Mascarenhas (Roshan),once the world’s best magician,now hopelessly infirm,calls it “ethanasia”. But euthanasia by any other name,regardless of smart puns,is not permissible — not by the courts,not by the church,and not by the legions of his fans. Ethan faces a lifetime of suffering,as he withers slowly and painfully away.A quadriplegic,confined to his bed for many years,has a small,simple plea: he wants to be allowed to end his life. That’s the thrust of the award-winning The Sea Inside,starring Javier Bardem. How similar are the two? If you think that the central idea is what makes a film,then the two films are identical,despite Bhansali’s attempt at dressing it up,and glossing it up. If the director were entirely honest,he would have had a line saying it was,at the very least,“inspired by”,but then who in Bollywood is,unless they are held at gun point by the studios the films are being stolen from?As is his wont,Bhansali creates stunning visuals. It helps that his leads are the best looking couple in Bollywood. He places Ethan in the kind of Goan home which plush magazines would be happy to feature: twinkling fountain in the middle,lush ferns on the side,high ceilings,antique furniture. He gives Ethan the kind of nurse you see in old Spanish canvases: Sofia D’Souza (Rai Bachchan) wears voluminous long skirts,blouses cut deep,black lace mantillas,and scarlet flowers in her dark plait which hangs down her sculpted back. He surrounds Ethan with nice things: a former wife who still cares for him (Dutta),the sea outside,an army of loyal friends,including an affectionate lawyer (Patel),inside.The painstaking attention to detail is very Bhansali. But unlike his early emotive films,the director’s penchant for creating the perfect scene nearly overcomes all else: Guzaarish is a gorgeous-looking,but sterile piece of work. You can describe Aishwarya’s part in it in exactly the same words. The hard-working Hrithik’s playing of Ethan-the-magician could have been the best thing he’s done,but ends up,barring an affecting passage or two,as stagey. One night,there’s a storm,and the leaking roof above Ethan’s bed causes the raindrops to fall straight on to his face,and there’s not a thing he can do: his pupil (Roy Kapoor) is dead asleep,and his old mother (Ali) closes her eyes for ever. You feel Ethan’s pain here,but that sharing lasts very briefly.Comparisons may be odious,but sometimes they can’t be helped. You see Hrithik helpless in that bed,and you see an actor who can’t seem to put his handsomeness aside. And then you flashback to Bardem: that is also one of the planet’s most delicious leading men,who allows his hair to recede,his fingers to curl in an ungainly fashion,and show us an unlikeable side to a man who has feelings but can never feel a thing. Ever. Guzaarish is a pretty picture with precious little magic: Bhansali needs to recharge his wand.

Shubhra Gupta,shubhra.gupta@expressindia.com