Magic tricks are performed with a flourish borrowed both from Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale in The Prestige. Costumes are snatched from an Edwardian era and set in a house from a horror film. There are singing nuns; servants who stir, chop and slice with vigour; women who weep beatifically; and a model who appears to be in the middle of a Vogue cover shoot. Yet the only one crying in this marathon tug-at-the-heart is the producer, who has spent Rs 60 crore on red roses, red scarves and red ties.

Despite the inconsistencies, the best part of the film is the relationship between Ethan and Sophia. Their interactions with each other, the fights, arguments and the banter touch the right chords. In terms of setting, the film is spectacular — the music and dialogues serve as perfect embellishments.

Bhansali’s love story doesn?t move you the way it is intended to. It’s unique, but not necessarily special. That pretty much sums up the film as well.

Guzaarish is an art museum. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is the perfectly chiseled curator and Hrithik Roshan an almost statue. And this once, it’s not his acting I’m complaining about, the script demands him to stay put. You are watching them etched in many exotic, exquisite paintings frame after frame. So, what if the very basis of the story is pointless and there are gaping holes which are difficult to digest.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s recent films have famously existed in a world of his own creation, a world cut off from the one we inhabit, a world where logic is often a hindrance. Guzaarish, his latest offering, may be less esoteric than his last film, Saawariya, but it’s still an unsatisfying effort because the filmmaker continues to invest more in the appearance of every frame than in the emotional truth of his characters.

On the whole, Guzaarish is a beautiful film for the classes but will face rejection among the masses. It will do excellent business in the good multiplexes and the big cities but not universally as it does not offer the entertainment which the masses look for in a film. Given its heavy cost, it would entail losses to its distributors (UTV). In short, its budget is its biggest problem.

A film like Guzaarish isn’t made for the box office. It’s made for the gratification of the senses. And that it does, in ample measure.

GUZAARISH is not an abstract and ambiguous film. It’s a simply narrated film made with a lot of heart. Although it’s sensitive, it never gets dukhi. Sanjay Leela Bhansali has treated the grave issue of mercy killing with maturity. Although it’s about a suffering person who wants to end his life, its message is about celebrating life.

It is, then, heartbreaking to watch such a defiantly ostentatious director borrow plot-points from foreign films, stultify his characters with ridiculous dialogue, and fall for painfully mainstream trappings, like a hackneyed, obligatory revenge/redemption subplot that makes a most unnecessary appearance towards the film’s end.

This fantasy would be effective if the writing was more organic and the emotions felt more authentic but Bhansali never gives us a chance to invest in these people. Combining euthanasia with song-and-dance is a tough, tough feat and despite his prodigious talent, Bhansali can’t pull it off. Since we don’t have a two and three-quarter rating, I’m going with three stars.