An over-the-top Hrithik Roshan playing a quadriplegic Ethan Mascarenhas doesn’t dim the inner glow of this pro-Euthanasia drama with a magical quality, quite literally since Roshan plays a magician in this magical movie on mercy killing. The project was born out of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s growing sense of anguish and despair about life’s hurtful curves. Bhansali said, "I was going through a severely depressed phase when I decided to make a film about mercy killing.
But I didn’t want to make dark gloomy film on death. I wanted Guzaarish to be a sunny optimistic film. Although the protagonist wants out, he wants to go with a hurrah.
" Atypically, Guzaarish ends with all of Ethan’s gathering around his bed in a group hug as he prepares to end his life. Miraculously , although Guzaarish is a film about dying, it doesn’t actually confront death headlong. "I was determined to keep the mood buoyant.
Why should dying be depressing? I was advised that if a film about death doesn’t culminate in a closure, audiences would feel letdown. But that was not the case," recalls Bhansali. Guzaarish was Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s third film with Bhansali and a departure from what she had done with the director in Hum.
..Dil De Chuke Sanam and Devdas.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali said that in terms of Aishwarya's looks, personality and performance, Guzaarish was very different from his other two films. "She was outstanding as the selfless caregiver. Not for a moment did she hesitate in surre.