Guzaarish (2010)

Popularity:

Down 33% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.

Director:

Sanjay Leela Bhansali

Writers:

Sanjay Leela Bhansali (screenplay)
Bhavani Iyer (dialogue)
(more)

Release Date:

16 November 2010 (United Arab Emirates)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Magic is an illusion... and so is life...

Plot:

A paralyzed Magician-turned-Radio Jockey files a Petition in Court seeking permission to end his life.

Plot Keywords:

Nurse | Magician | Quadriplegic | Euthanasia | Physician

Awards:

3 wins & 11 nominations

Cast

Hrithik Roshan	...	Ethan Mascarenhas
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan	...	Sofia D'Souza
Shernaz Patel	...	Advocate Devyani Dutta
Aditya Roy Kapoor	...	Omar Siddiqui
Nafisa Ali	...	Isabel Mascarenhas
Monikangana Dutta	...	Estella Francis (as Moni Kangana Dutta)
Suhel Seth	...	Dr. Nayak
Rajit Kapoor	...	Public Prosecutor Vipin Patel
Ash Chandler	...	Yasser Siddiqui
Vijay Crishna	...	Judge Rajhansmoni
Makrand Deshpande	...	Nevile D'Souza
Olivier Lafont	...	Father Samuel (as Sanjay Lafonte)
Jineet Rath	...	Little Ethan
Parveen Rabbani	...	Rosy
Farida Mistry	...	Maria
Prahlad Kakar	...	Himself
Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal	...	Herself
Chandraprakash	...	TV Debate Panelist
Achint Kaur	...	Saroj Vaidya - TV News Reporter
Swara Bhaskar	...	Radhika Talwar
Shawn Williams	...	Dick Fernandes
Priya Anantram	...	Pamela Fernandes
Priyanka Bose	...	Singer at the Bar
John Julius	...	Super Duper Quads on phone
Rafat Sheikh	...	Duper Quads on phone
Polly Shroff	...	Sister Julia on phone
Aayam Mehta	...	Activist on Phone
Sujata Kumar	...	School Principal on Phone
Varsha Agnihotri	...	Lady Activist on phone
Rohit Mehra	...	Student on phone
Benaifer Kuka	...	Student on phone
Chandani Batra	...	Student on phone
Megha Mehratra	...	Student on phone
Sahil Shah	...	Student on Phone
K.C. Shankar	...	Yasser's Assistant
Abdul Rashid	...	Musician at Ethan's Party
Lawrie D'Couza	...	Musician at Ethan's Party
Raja Pandit	...	Musician
Vernon	...	Musician
Mukesh	...	Musician
Colin Karzai	...	Musician
Gangaram	...	Musician at Bar
Vincent	...	Musician at Bar
Ashwin	...	Musician at Bar
Tony Martin	...	Bar Manager
K.K. Cory	...	Guest at Party
Olivia	...	Guest at Party
Aurelia Khazan	...	Guest at Party (as Aurelia)
Sanjay	...	Guest at Party
Behram	...	Guest at Party
Bhernaz	...	Guest at Party
Somesh	...	Guest at Party
Gopi	...	Guest at Party
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Sujatha Kumar	...	School Teacher on Phone

Directed by
Sanjay Leela Bhansali

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Sanjay Leela Bhansali		screenplay
Bhavani Iyer		dialogue
Bhavani Iyer		screenplay
Vibhu Puri		dialogue
Turaz		lyrics

Produced by
Sanjay Leela Bhansali	....	producer
Siddharth Roy Kapur	....	executive producer
Deven Khote	....	executive producer
Zarina Mehta	....	executive producer
Ronnie Screwvala	....	producer
Ashish Tandel	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Sanjay Leela Bhansali		(music director)
Tarik		(original background score) (as Tubby - Tarik)
Tubby		(original background score) (as Tubby - Tarik)

Cinematography by
Sudeep Chatterjee		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Hemal Kothari

Casting by
Amita Sehgal

Production Design by
Acropolis
Sumit Basu

Art Direction by
Rajnish Hedao

Costume Design by
Sabyasachi Mukherji

Makeup Department
Vidyadhar Bhatte	....	makeup department head

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Pravesh Gurung	....	chief assistant director
Abhishek Jain	....	assistant director
Faisal Khan	....	assistant director
Amber Lall	....	associate director
Taruni Mathur	....	assistant director
Mohankumar Padya	....	assistant director
Suraj Sadanah	....	associate director
Vishesh Deepak Sareen	....	chief assistant director
Shailey Sharma	....	associate director
Rishabh Thakkar	....	chief assistant director

Sound Department
Manik Batra	....	additional sound recordist
Faisal Majeed	....	sound editor
Faisal Majeed	....	sound effects editor
Anuj Mathur	....	sound re-recording mixer
Gyana Mishra	....	boom operator
Dileep Subramanian	....	sound

Special Effects by
Pratyush kumar Lenka	....	special effects
Suchint Mandloi	....	cleanup

Visual Effects by
Francine Almeida	....	matte painter: Prime Focus
Shudhdodhan Milind Ambhore	....	rotoscope artist: Prime Focus Ltd
Arunraj	....	paint/prep artist
Aditya Badekar	....	project coordinator
Bakiyaraj	....	matte painter
Vivian Britto	....	lead compositor: opening titles
Goolzar Buchia	....	senior fx artist
Satyendra Chaturvedi	....	digital compositor
Michael D'Sa	....	visual effects producer
Shome Dasgupta	....	Head of Production - Primefocus - IND
Bharat De	....	2d sequence lead
Samadrita Deb	....	visual effects artist
Prashant Dhotre	....	lighting lead
Parag Godse	....	senior digital matte painter
Arushi Govil	....	compositor
Arushi Govil	....	visual effects artist
Hardik Govindya	....	motion graphic artist
Gaurav Gupta	....	visual effects
Rohinton Irani	....	tracking lead
Shashank Jadhav	....	digital compositor: Prime Focus
Avnish Jha	....	senior texture artist
Ashwin Joshi	....	digital compositor
Dushyant Kashyap	....	technical director: rendering
Darpan Kataria	....	digital compositor
Paras Kawa	....	digital compositor
Abhijeet Lamture	....	senior texture painter
Pranav Malasi	....	cleanup artist
Vidhi Mehra	....	motion graphics artist
Udit Mohan	....	digital compositor
Abhijit Mulye	....	lead matte painter
Tanuja Naik	....	visual effects coordinator
Payankulath Nandakumar	....	senior compositor
Anand Nayak	....	lead fx artist
Surough Nayak	....	IT support: Prime Focus
Prem Panigrahi	....	visual effects artist
Prakash Parmar	....	prep artist
Virendra Prajapati	....	online editor
Kambali Prashant	....	senior modeler
Vivek Pundir	....	project coordinator
Rajeev Kumar Rastogi	....	Line Producer (as Rajeev Kumar)
Dipak Raval	....	rotoscope artist
Reupal D. Rawal	....	visual effects supervisor
Amey Sakpal	....	paint artist
Sayantan Sanyal	....	lighting artist
Tushar Shah	....	visual effects
Vaidehi Shinde	....	matte painter
Shyam Shrivastava	....	cleanup artist
Nitin Singh	....	production coordinator
Raunaq Singh	....	cleanup artist
Raunaq Singh	....	digital compositor
Suryaji Suryavanshi	....	digital compositor
Sutrayepavankumar	....	digital compositor
Merzin Tavaria	....	visual effects supervisor
Akshat Tiwari	....	roto/compositor (uncredited)
Yogendra Tonke	....	senior texture painter
Parikshit Tyagi	....	digital compositor
Vinod Vyas	....	digital compositor
Vinod Vyas	....	senior roto/paint artist
Vikas Wadekar	....	roto artist

Stunts
Shyam Kaushal	....	stunt coordinator

Camera and Electrical Department
Rafiq Ahmed	....	focus puller
Rafique Ahmed	....	focus puller
Anirban Chatterjee	....	first assistant camera
Trupti Jagtap	....	assistant camera
Maajid Khan	....	still photographer
Arman Merchant	....	still photographer
Kamlesh Sadrani	....	gaffer

Casting Department
Rohit Mehra	....	casting assistant

Editorial Department
Rajesh Dash	....	associate editor
Rohan Desai	....	colorist
Rohan Desai	....	digital intermediate supervisor

Music Department
Dominique Cerejo	....	playback singer
Sunidhi Chauhan	....	playback singer
Marriane D'Cruz	....	playback singer
Kunal Ganjawala	....	playback singer
Shail Hada	....	playback singer
Vibhavari Joshi	....	playback singer
Kay Kay	....	playback singer (as K.K.)
Shankar Mahadevan	....	playback singer
Edward Mendis	....	playback singer
Rakesh Pandit	....	playback singer
Hrithik Roshan	....	playback singer
Tara Sutaria	....	playback singer

Other crew
Shweta Chanda	....	behind the scenes filming
Joe D'Souza	....	stills photograhpy
Longiness Fernandes	....	choreographer
Maajid Khan	....	publicity stills
Ashley Lobo	....	choreographer
Prakash Nathan	....	marketing: distribution & syndication
Jayaram Ramachandran	....	publicity design
Fali R. Singara	....	radio jockey consultant
Pony Verma	....	choreographer

Production Companies

• Prime Focus
• Sanjay Leela Bhansali Films
• UTV Motion Pictures

Distributors

• Mind Blowing Films (2010) (Australia) (theatrical)
• Star Films (2011) (Peru) (theatrical)

Special Effects

• Prime Focus (Special effects, Digital intermediate)

Other Companies

• Lights & Grips Equipment Hirers India  grip and lighting equipment

Also Known As:

"Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Guzaarish" - India (English title) (complete title)
"The Petition" - India (English title) (alternative transliteration)
"The Request" - International (English title) (literal title)

Runtime:

126 min

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi | English

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:M (2010) | Ireland:15A | Singapore:PG | South Korea:12

Filming Locations:

Goa, India

Company:

Prime Focus

Trivia:

Madhuri Dixit who had returned to India for a comeback in film saw the film and tweeted that she saw Hrithik Roshan assisting his father on the sets of Kishan Kanhaiya 1990 and said that this boy would really make it big some day wherein she appreciated Hrithik Roshan's performance.

Quotes:

Ethan Mascarenhas:Life is very short, my friends. But it is long enough, if you live with all your heart.

Movie Connections:

References Romeo and Juliet (1968)

Soundtrack:

Daayein Baayein

A request for a one-way ticket

Sanjay Leela Bhansali returns with Guzaarish, a dramatic musical feature which tells the story Ethan Mascarenhas, a former successful magician who has been entirely paralysed since a tragic stage accident. After 14 years of immobility, a highly cynical and humorous Ethan, who has found success as a radio anchor and as an author, is exhausted and he willingly files an appeal to the court for mercy killing, also known as euthanasia. There begins a true moral dilemma which provokes many contradicting thoughts among those who surround Ethan, which include his devoted nurse for the last 14 years, Sofia D'Souza, a beautiful, serious and yet caring woman who first takes Ethan's decision as an insult to her long-standing selflessness, and of course among the viewers themselves.

Guzaarish is without a doubt an interesting film to watch, it is generally restrained in its portrayal of emotions, but at times -- the complete opposite. In a way it is a lot like Bhansali's pre-previous venture Black. It revolves around Anglo-Indian people, it is mostly in English, it is aided by lavish sets and costumes, the cinematography is stupendous, and the entire atmosphere is dark, dim and beautiful, filled with fantastic songs and a wonderful background score. In that sense, the movie is a true visual and musical treat. With the exception of Khamoshi, all of Bhansali's films have been glossy and extravagant, a style which was very appreciated by some, but many have considered it pretentious, snobbish, and a little hard to get into and relate to.

Guzaarish can be looked at from different angles. From one side, it can be accused of supporting mercy killing, which is unacceptable, but from the other, it's deeply devastating to know that a person cannot even move to end his life when he wants to. Both sides give the film a rather depressing feel despite the fact that Bhansali tries hard to lift the viewers' spirit by building a narrative that is full of positive and hopeful songs about the beauty of life and some breathtaking nature landscapes. The courtroom scenes are well portrayed, with one scene in which Ethan tries to illustrate the level of his agony through one 60-second "trick", being one of the film's most impressive. At the same time, the film's final scene is extremely manipulative, long and over-dramatised, being one of the film's biggest flaws.

Where the film scores big time except for its artistic portrayal of the rich cultural lifestyle of Portuguese-influenced Goa, it is definitely in the acting department. Hrithik Roshan wonderfully plays Ethan's hidden pain, his sense of irony, his great good-humour, and his love for those who surround him. Bhansali has once said that he is the only director who knows how to use Aishwarya Rai's beauty in his films and the one capable of extracting the best out of her acting skills. He once again proves to be right, as Rai delivers a brilliant, elegant and graceful portrayal of Sofia, effectively creating a rather tough screen persona, and yet letting the viewer sense her very soft inside, her love, goodwill and kindness. I would also like to mention her "Udi" dance performance, which is simply astonishing.

The supporting cast includes the fantastic Shernaz Patel, who once again delivers an impressive act after her performance as a loving mother in Black. Nafisa Ali is still beautiful as Ethan's mother, and her monologue in court in support of her son is very touching. Rajit Kapoor is good as the prosecutor and boy has he changed since his appearances in Shyam Benegal's movies such as Mammo and The Making of The Mahatma. Aditya Roy Kapur is okay as Ethan's fan. All said and done, Guzaarish is a watchable movie which is generally moving, well scripted and very well acted. It is an extremely eye and ear-pleasing picture thanks to its cinematographic excellence and great musical numbers composed by Bhansali himself, but it has its share of minuses, and the film's final scene is example to that.